- 2 minutes ago
Az EU-tagjelölt országoknak a csatlakozás előtt el kell dönteniük, melyik oldalon állnak — Kos
Az EU‑hoz csatlakozni kívánó tagjelölt országoknak már a csatlakozás előtt geopolitikai döntéseket kell hozniuk, és alapvető kérdésekben igazodniuk kell az unióhoz – mondta Marta Kos, az EU bővítéséért felelős biztos az Euronewsnak.
BŐVEBBEN : http://hu.euronews.com/2025/11/10/az-eu-tagjelolt-orszagoknak-a-csatlakozas-elott-el-kell-donteniuk-melyik-oldalon-allnak-ko
Iratkozzon fel: Az Euronews elérhető 12 nyelven
Az EU‑hoz csatlakozni kívánó tagjelölt országoknak már a csatlakozás előtt geopolitikai döntéseket kell hozniuk, és alapvető kérdésekben igazodniuk kell az unióhoz – mondta Marta Kos, az EU bővítéséért felelős biztos az Euronewsnak.
BŐVEBBEN : http://hu.euronews.com/2025/11/10/az-eu-tagjelolt-orszagoknak-a-csatlakozas-elott-el-kell-donteniuk-melyik-oldalon-allnak-ko
Iratkozzon fel: Az Euronews elérhető 12 nyelven
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to the Europe Conversation. My guest today is Marta Kahl. She is a European Commissioner for Enlargement.
00:14Commissioner, thank you very much. Well, you're the woman of the hour, maybe the week and the month in Brussels today,
00:21which is not a bad place to be. Of course, the Commission has now put out this new report with recommendations.
00:26And you say from the get-go, when you look at enlargement, it is a geopolitical necessity, imperative.
00:32It will make us stronger and richer. How?
00:35If we do it right. It's not, you know, just normally that it will make us stronger and richer.
00:41But we live now in special times when, once again, the enlargement could be the most successful policy,
00:50helping European Union to answer to the challenges which occurred in the last, I would say, one year or even earlier when the war in Ukraine started.
01:01Meaning that I see enlargement as much more than just enlargement.
01:06It is really the possibility for making our European Union stronger, as you have said.
01:13It is the possibility that we, if we do it right, do finally unification of Europe.
01:19Meaning bringing, if we succeed all the ten countries, if we bring all of them in then, Europe will be united for the first time in the history.
01:29And this is somehow today, again, we are going back to why the European Union has been established.
01:36It is again a peace project, very important, what is happening in Ukraine, bringing Ukraine and also Moldova.
01:43It is about securing peace. It is about freedom. It is about prosperity and security.
01:50And of course language is very important and I noticed that you said this is about unifying Europe.
01:53And it is interesting because many leaders say it shouldn't be enlargement, it should be called the unification of Europe.
01:59Which is, again, there is a lot of power behind that word.
02:02But I wonder, however, how do you turn that into a reality? How do you make that leap?
02:07This is really a very responsible document showing the facts.
02:13But generally I could say that this is the proof that enlargement is happening.
02:19For the first time in the last years, you know, the last time we have enlarged it was 2013 with Croatia.
02:25And today the possibility, the realistic possibility exists that in the next years we will get new members.
02:34We have two clearly frontrunners or leaders in the process.
02:39We have two other countries where actually the development or progress has been huge in the last year.
02:48Albania and Montenegro.
02:50And of course then Ukraine and Moldova.
02:53We shouldn't forget all the others.
02:56So, but now, you know, it is a kind of, I have to say, you know, that this is also happening because the European Commission or Union has changed the attitude towards the enlargement.
03:08It hasn't been in the plan in the last years.
03:12Now with this last commission it is, we are also getting the support in the European Parliament for the enlargement.
03:20And generally also the majority of the citizens of the EU are supporting.
03:26At the beginning you said there are two countries that are their frontrunners.
03:29That would be Albania and Montenegro.
03:31Then you mentioned Moldova and Ukraine.
03:34Are we to understand, and I don't want to make this a cliche, that then Serbia, North Macedonia, you view us, or so we should include Georgia at some point in that conversation.
03:45You view now as not doing as well, you would put them at the bottom of the rank?
03:51No, I'm not ranking this, but I see the results.
03:55You know, we have in this enlargement report, we have measured the progress, one year progress, and general preparedness.
04:02To some extent, you know, Serbia is more prepared than the countries I have mentioned before, but there was no progress or it was even backsliding.
04:12So this is what is very much important.
04:15It can be ready to some extent in some chapters of the negotiations, ready more than the others.
04:22But, you know, we have to really see the progress, especially on the rule of law, anti-corruption, media freedom, academic freedom.
04:30And these are actually the areas, the last three points where Serbia was backsliding.
04:35But, still, you know, I'm extending my arm in the sense of we want to see democratic Serbia in the EU, but democratic Serbia.
04:45And I'm happy that all the protests since November last year have shown that there is a democratic potential and that people want to go on the way of democracy and we are supporting this.
05:00And I want to unpack what you said because I wanted to talk about Serbia after, but now that you brought it up, what does that mean?
05:07You say there is backsliding and it's happened in many critical areas going from civil rights to freedom of expression in the media.
05:14You also say, I want to see a democratic Serbia.
05:17If I'm the president of Serbia and I'm hearing this, I would go, well, it's going to be very rough. That means this is not going to move.
05:23I stay behind every word which is in the report. Why especially? Many, many areas. One of them is never before have been so many journalists jailed in Serbia as in the last year.
05:40The judiciary system is very much under the influence of the president. Nothing is happening in the enlargement process without the president.
05:51It is not right. And I could go on. CFSP alignment. So, you know, we expect from our candidates that they align in the trend their foreign and security policy with the European one.
06:07Serbia is really on the last place. So we have four members or four countries candidates from the Western Balkans having 100% fulfillment of the CFSP alignment. Ukraine is 99, Moldova is 98, Serbia is 61. One point.
06:26One point. The other point is I can understand that President Vucic is going also to Moscow and to China. But we notice this. I can understand. I come from this area. I know about the relations between Serbia and Russia.
06:44On the other hand, you know, being supportive to a regime, Russian regime, which is killing people in Ukraine, not accepting the sanctions which the EU is having against Russia.
07:00Russia. There are things which we really cannot tolerate anymore. And what I think is also not good. And it is mentioned in the report is that especially the Serbian politicians and media, which are then following his lead, should really stop accusing us, the European Union, that we are behind the protests in Serbia.
07:24Serbia. Really, we are not. So this is clearly a lie. And there are many, many lies I could go on. And this would stop immediately.
07:32Just to play devil advocate for a second and then we can move on. What the Serbian authorities would say is that we don't apply your sanctions because we're not a member of the EU.
07:41If we join, we would be aligned. They also say, you know, we go to Russia, but we also have a relationship with Ukraine. But what I understand is that you're saying I hear those arguments.
07:50But if you want to join, then you need to make choices. You want to see choices.
07:54Yes. And it is a very important geopolitical choice. You know, we all have to make geopolitical choices.
08:00There are also some member states, for instance, who are suffering or will have problems when we say that we want to get out of the energy independence on Russia.
08:13We have done this quite a lot, you know, when the war started in Ukraine. 60% of the gas in Europe was imported from Russia. Now we are down to 5%.
08:25Of course, you know, we have to buy also energy, which is more expensive. But why do we do this?
08:31Because we punish the system who has started this unfair war and supporting Ukraine. But not everything is negative in Serbia. I don't want to give this impression.
08:44There have been small steps like media legislation has been has been adopted. Now they are in the finishing line of the very important council on the electronic media or voting register. So there are some things. And this is right. So and we are supportive, but much, much more needs to be done.
09:07And you made that clear. Now let's move on perhaps to Ukraine, because it's the other big country. Obviously, no country has applied for a membership in these conditions. This is a country that says it can perform deeply, but also fight a war at the same time.
09:18In your report, you say that they are committed and you see that they are committed. You also say and this to me really, it's very important. You said the technicalities to open up the clusters, they are ready and it should happen in November. That's a very bold statement to make. But you know, the issue is a Hungarian veto.
09:35So this needs a political short circuit. Who's going to do it? You know, I'm a bold person and we should deliver. We are or me and my team, we are pushing the candidates.
09:47They have to deliver. But we should deliver, too. And we say it is merit based. It goes both sides, meaning if and it is not about Ukraine.
09:56I'm full of admiration. I'm full of admiration what they are delivering, you know, while the bombs are falling on the country and the same for Moldova. But they have delivered. So we have we will be by November ready to open all the clusters.
10:10And then one of the member states is opposing. It's Hungary and they have said we're not going to change. Yeah, but you know, this the same country, the same member states has given a green light to give candidate status to Ukraine has given a green light to start negotiations.
10:30But now it is blocking. This is not fair. And this is not how I see the European solidarity and geopolitical need. But of course, I'm sure we will find the solution.
10:42The solution, you know, not Ukraine, not Moldova. They don't need Orban to do the reforms. They can do the reforms on the way. So perhaps we see more to black and white.
10:58We can only go on if we open the cluster or clusters. No, we can go on also without opening formally the clusters. We can do the technical work. I'm speaking about in the working groups. And when the conditions will be met, then we can open and close clusters.
11:16How do you say that? Because when you look at unanimity, you obviously say we need to find a way around this because otherwise the process won't end.
11:23The other big pillar of internal reform of the EU is the countries that join the member states would argue they need to be aligned with us.
11:33We need to make sure that the new members are not going to make life more difficult.
11:36So how is the EU at 27 going to be managed in a better, more efficient way when we see a 27 is complicated at 21?
11:45Would you say, for example, if a new country joins, they need to be put to the test and they need to be put on probation?
11:50There are two important points. First is that the member state, the candidate countries really have to be ready.
11:56They really have to go through the whole process and being ready, also applying all the so-called Copenhagen criteria, having a strong economy, institutions and so on.
12:10On the other side, we also have to be ready. And this is the parallel process.
12:14So the Commission will, in the next weeks, put out the results of the so-called pre-enlargement review, where we have to see inside us what we have to do, that we will be ready to function also when we will get some new members on board.
12:32You know, my country Slovenia joined the EU in 2004. Ten countries joined. It was 90 million people. And we survived.
12:42Now we are speaking about Albania, 2.78 million. And we are speaking about Montenegro. It is a kind of 600,000 people. It's like Antwerp.
12:53So should really this, a bit more than 3 million new citizens be such a big problem? Of course not. But I can understand the concerns of the member states, of the citizens, and that we have to talk about it.
13:08So what I expect now, and I hope that we will do this together, all the stakeholders, to discuss about the future of the European Union. And it could also be that we speak about the decision-making process.
13:24Do you like the idea of class A and class B members?
13:27No, I'm strictly against, but this is my personal opinion. No, we cannot have two class members. You know, when Slovenia joined the EU, we have been equal like Germany.
13:37You know, we were so happy at that time and France and so on. I'm exaggerating a bit, but no, we have to enable that all the members will be equal.
13:46But already exists, you know, through the accession treaties, we can define transitional periods. For instance, Poland has gotten now, you know, people speak about the danger of the agriculture from Ukraine.
14:01You know, when Poland joined, it was the same issue with their agriculture. So Poland has gotten 20 years of the transitional period.
14:09And just as we reach to the end, there are two points that I would like to clarify. One is, you said, everywhere that we put out in their report, we stand by it, and we think this is a good report.
14:19Obviously, with Ukraine, you say they have made a lot of progress, but you also point out, too, the idea of rule of law and corruption needs to be tackled further.
14:27As you can see, the government, President Zelensky, he spoke with us, he said, I haven't fully seen it, but I'm not sure I fully agree with that description.
14:34What did you mean by that?
14:36The interpret is very negative. Is it that negative?
14:39No, not at all. But, you know, the report for Ukraine and any other country is more than 100 pages.
14:45And some people have read just a few lines. And it is really good to see the whole report.
14:52And for Ukraine, it is clearly a huge development, a huge progress. But there are some points, and this is nearly for every candidate country.
15:02Just to remind you, why are we doing this enlargement reports? It is, we do this to point out what is running well, and to see where we need some improvements.
15:15And one of the areas where we see the danger in Ukraine is, and we have experienced this on July 22nd, where actually law has been adopted, which was making their two main anti-corruption agency less independent.
15:35And this is not good. You know, it is very, very important that the country, not just Ukraine, is having independent anti-corruption institutions.
15:44And this was a clear backsliding. And this shouldn't be the case. The law has been repaired, not yet to 100%, so we are still working on this.
15:54And this is why we have put this into the report.
15:58In all of this, you still say the European Union is going to be stronger with them inside?
16:03Yes, once they will join, but they will not be able to join unless they will be prepared. So this is a circle we have to follow.
16:09Just very quickly, Georgia. The language that you have used is, at least to my knowledge, the most severe I have ever seen in a report like this.
16:18If I understand what you say, where you talk about massive and very serious backsliding on everything.
16:24You talk about authorities that no longer seem to be interested in this process.
16:28If I read that, the way that I would interpret it is, this is the end of the road.
16:32But at the same time, there is a people, and we all know this, who are prepared to do almost anything to now join the European Union.
16:40How do you bridge this gap?
16:42You are right. This is the worst enlargement report for any candidate country ever. But rightly so.
16:50So what their government is doing, and lying to their people, they are saying that they are bringing Georgia closer to the EU.
16:58They are bringing Georgia away from the EU. So it is clear backsliding on many, many areas, especially on the fundamentals.
17:08The rule of law, anti-corruption, media freedom. You know, the government, what is the government doing?
17:16The government is not following the interests of their own people.
17:23Because they say they want in very clearly. Is there a way to bridge this gap?
17:28You know, that's why the only option is that the government of Georgia will revise many, many laws who are clearly anti-European.
17:41They should stop putting their political opponents or journalists in jail.
17:48They really should start not oppressing any more the organizations of civil society.
17:54You know, we have difficulties to support them because as long as they are here, we would love to support them.
18:04They are in the danger that they will be put in jail.
18:07So, yes, it is clearly Georgia still a candidate country, but for the commission only on the paper.
18:14And we will do everything to support media and especially civil society organizations.
18:20And just lastly, by 2030, the end of this mandate, what does the European Union look like?
18:24Is it 29? Is it 30? Who's in it?
18:27Oh, I don't know. I can't see in the stars, but I will work endlessly and tirelessly on this project in which I really believe.
18:39For the first time, after many years, the prospects of the enlargement are there, how many countries it will be.
18:46It is not that much important.
18:48Important is that actually we will get stronger, as you have said, and that we will make our union of values and democracy bigger.
19:01And I will close with this, if I may. You know, in the past, the European Union has always been capable to include the countries which have been, for instance, Portugal, Spain, Greece.
19:16We included them into the EU after the end of the dictatorships.
19:21After the Berlin Wall fell, we have been able to include for the first time countries from the Eastern Europe.
19:28And now we are again in this historical moment. So I am positive there will be some new members. How many? Let's meet in 2030, no, 2029, because my mandate ended in 2029.
19:43So we have to meet before December the 1st, 29. Then we can talk about the numbers.
19:48We'll invite you again, Commissioner Kost. Thank you so much for this important conversation in Euronews. Thank you very much.
Recommended
1:24
1:15
Be the first to comment