The declaration approved by all leaders at the end of the European Council meeting in the Andalusian city cites the bloc’s preparation to welcome new members, migration and strengthening the bloc’s “resilience”, particularly in the areas of defense and competitiveness, as priorities for the EU. Before.
But the summit also showed how heated some debates around the strategic agenda will be in the years to come, with Hungary and Poland refusing to support a set of conclusions including a paragraph on migration.
Enlargement
The debate on enlargement, for example, is likely to focus on money: who will get it and why?
Russia’s war against Ukraine revived the desire to enlarge the EU after a decade of status quo with the head of the Council, Charles Michel, even calling for a deadline of 2030.
In Granada, where a summit of the European Political Community was also held on Thursday attended by 45 leaders, most EU leaders touted their support for enlargement.
Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, for example, told reporters that “if you take a broader, longer-term view, enlargement is always good for Europe. the European economy to grow.
“So I think it’s really important that when we look at these issues, we don’t just look at it as a financial calculation,” he added.
But while they all agree that the bloc needs to expand, they also largely agree that it cannot do so without first reforming. Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, urged leaders to “start a real discussion on the EU’s absorption capacity and internal reform”, calling it “long overdue”.
Seven countries now have candidate status, including war-torn Ukraine, Moldova and five Western Balkan countries, whose applications are now more than a decade old. All are much poorer than EU member states and would therefore likely receive the lion’s share of EU cohesion and agricultural funds if their allocation criteria remained unchanged.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas emphasized this point, telling journalists that when her country of 1.3 million people, spread over just 1 percent of the EU’s total land area, joined the EU in 2004, it received “around 20% of the total area of the EU”. agricultural funds in the first place.
“So this also requires reforms on our part. Is it really sustainable to do things this way?” she says.
Another idea that has been floated to encourage candidate countries to continue on the reform path towards the EU is that of gradual integration: allowing countries to join EU policies and programs when they successfully complete a negotiating chapter until they become full members. Supported by the French president, the concept was welcomed by certain candidate countries including Albania and Serbia.
At the same time, some member states are calling for a change in voting rules, arguing that maintaining unanimity on some topics would likely slow down the EU’s decision-making with a larger number of members.
Leaders are now expected to discuss in more detail how the bloc should reform to accommodate new members at their summit in Brussels in December.
Migration
Migration, one of the most controversial subjects in recent years in Brussels, is expected to remain at the top of the agenda in the next legislature.
The number of irregular crossings of the EU’s external borders in the first eight months of the year rose to more than 230,000, the highest figure recorded for this period since 2016, according to the latest Frontex figures. .
The EU is currently racing to conclude negotiations and approve a new pact on migration and asylum before the end of the Commission’s mandate in June, after member states finally adopted their positions on the issue on Wednesday . what we call crisis regulation. It was the missing piece of a sprawling legislative puzzle, preventing the opening of negotiations between Parliament and member states.
The agreement includes plans to speed up processing at the bloc’s external borders, create a “voluntary and temporary” solidarity mechanism and promote the return of irregular migrants. The objective is to put an end to the ad hoc crisis management mode in place since the 2015 migration crisis.
But not everyone is happy. Hungary and Poland, in particular, denounced the adoption in the EU Council of migration positions by qualified majority, thus depriving them of their possibility of vetoing.
On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán set the tone for the years to come. Referring to the Council’s adoption of the crisis settlement earlier this week, he said: “Legally, we have been violated.”
“So, after this, there is no chance of having any compromise or agreement on migration, politically. It is not possible, not today, generally speaking, nor for the years to come. come,” he added.
According to Euronews, the summit’s conclusions were abandoned because Warsaw and Budapest insisted that a line be added on the need for consensus on migration issues.
However, the EU now wants to focus on the root causes of migration and strengthen cooperation with countries of origin and transit to stem flows and stimulate returns.
He praises his recent agreement with Tunisiaunder which it funds border management and a faster return of asylum seekers whose applications have been refused, as a possible model of partnership with third countries, despite strong criticism from members of the European Parliament and humanitarian organizations regarding human rights concerns.
“The better legal channels and humanitarian corridors we have, the stricter we can and must be regarding the return of those who are not eligible for asylum,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said on Friday. .
Defense and competitiveness
Finally, “resilience”, a word used four times in the Grenada Declaration, in terms of climate, security, defense and competitiveness. But in Granada, leaders focused primarily on the latter two.
“For us it is very important to increase Europe’s defense readiness,” Kallas said. “We are at war in Europe and we must prepare for it. That also means strengthening the defense industry, but also increasing defense spending, because that is the reality we live in.”
The EU has already made a 180-degree turnaround on defense since Russia first attacked Ukraine almost 600 days ago, including supplying weapons to a country at war. European funds are also used to boost munitions production by European defense companies.
Debates have already erupted over whether EU money should be used to buy foreign-made military equipment, what role a common EU defense would play and how it would fit into the NATO.
On competitiveness, the declaration says the EU must strengthen its “position as an industrial, technological and commercial powerhouse, with particular emphasis on high value-added areas where we already have a competitive advantage or can become a leader “.
Brussels has in recent months become more combative in its attempt to protect European industry from unfair practices and its access to critical materials and technologies. This was greeted with pleasure by some, such as France, and with caution by others, such as Germany.
The main issue here is how to deal with China, its stranglehold on critical supply chains and its vast government subsidy programs that allow Chinese manufacturers of renewable energy and cars, among others, to flood the European market cheaper products.
But it also includes topics such as energy, how to ensure that European companies can power themselves at lower cost while continuing to reduce their emissions, in a bloc with as many energy mixes as there are member states. .