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Abgeordnete streiten über nächste EU-Erweiterungsrunde
Die EU-Kommission legt ihren neuen Bericht zum Stand der Beitrittskandidaten vor. Im Parlament geraten Riho Terras und Pasquale Tridico darüber heftig aneinander.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/11/05/abgeordnete-streiten-uber-nachste-eu-erweiterungsrunde
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Die EU-Kommission legt ihren neuen Bericht zum Stand der Beitrittskandidaten vor. Im Parlament geraten Riho Terras und Pasquale Tridico darüber heftig aneinander.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/11/05/abgeordnete-streiten-uber-nachste-eu-erweiterungsrunde
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
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NewsTranskript
00:08Hello and welcome to this special edition of The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show
00:14broadcasting live from the Euronews Enlargement Summit from Autoworld in Brussels.
00:20I'm Stefan Grober.
00:22Now here on The Ring, politicians go face to face on some of the biggest issues facing
00:27the continent and on this episode we are honing in on really the future of Europe.
00:34With Ukraine's accession ambitions and the Western Balkans long wait for membership, EU
00:40enlargement is once again at the center of Europe's political debate.
00:46While some see expansion as a strategic necessity to strengthen European security and democracy,
00:52others warn that rushing the process risks undermining peace, democratic standards and the EU's
01:00own cohesion.
01:02So after years of promises and delays, can the EU move forward credibly and should geopolitical
01:11interests come before strict membership rules?
01:15So, a lot to unpack here for our contenders in The Ring today.
01:20And here they are.
01:22Pascale Torridico, Italian member of the European Parliament with the left group, and Rio Terras,
01:27also member of the European Parliament with the European People's Party from Estonia.
01:32Please welcome to The Ring, gentlemen.
01:37Pascale.
01:42So, let's start with Serbia, where the parliamentary elections just a few days ago brought to power
01:48a student movement that is not necessarily more pro-European than the government of Aleksandr
01:55Vucic.
01:56Do you still see Serbia on track to become an EU member state in the foreseeable future?
02:02Rio, I'm going to start with you.
02:03Well, I'm not predicting anything what the student movement is or is not, because they were not
02:10willing to declare their political views before they were winning, and they won with an avalanche.
02:18So, I think it is important that the Serbian people have decided that the regime of Vucic was
02:26not democratic enough.
02:27And now, it is in the hands of these people who have been elected to the Parliament to decide
02:33which track Serbia needs to take.
02:36And I am convinced that the track is European track, because Serbian people are very much
02:41willing.
02:42Pascale, how do you see it?
02:44It's right.
02:45We don't know much about their...
02:47Yeah, we don't know much, but I would be quite...
02:49I mean, I'm quite happy about the fact that young students all over Europe today are demonstrating
02:55and fighting for their right.
02:56They want to take the future.
02:58And in fact, we see as well in Serbia, it's happening directly through democratic process,
03:02the elections.
03:03So, this is something that needs to be respected and seen positive in particular, because as
03:08we know, the government of Vucic was quite corrupted.
03:12There were accusations of that.
03:14Europe was complaining as well against the government.
03:18Does Serbia, at the end of the day, needs to make a choice between its friendship to Russia
03:25and the European Union?
03:28Nowadays, there is only...
03:29We're getting mixed signals here, right?
03:31Nowadays, there is only black and white.
03:35If you are not with the European Union, Russia will grab you.
03:39And we have seen that Ukraine announcing their willingness to have an association agreement
03:46with the European Union caused the war and Russia attacked Ukraine.
03:51So, in my opinion, there is no free space in defense, no free space in economy, and Europe
03:58needs to use the opportunity right now.
04:00Would you agree?
04:01Well, I'm quite skeptical to the idea of seeing the world in general, black and white, the
04:08world, countries that need to make a choice to be there and there.
04:12Member states have their own Eastern traditions, so they may be linked with some countries.
04:20I don't make this as a necessary condition.
04:22You have to disconnect all your legacy from...
04:28You know, we need to understand better the tradition and the root of the people.
04:31I see today that there is an issue with Russia, and I see the war of aggression.
04:36But once we...
04:37We cannot change geography.
04:41Geography is there for us to be ruled, to be governed.
04:46And countries, they have ties.
04:47If we see the world as bloc contra...
04:52Blocs which are one against another, we don't see the room for politics, in fact.
04:58Politics needs, in general, to create links.
05:02But Europe is funding and supporting Ukraine.
05:06And isn't it fair to say to Serbia, you need to cut off your relations with Russia?
05:11Otherwise, there's no European...
05:12I don't think it is any need to say to the countries anything.
05:15That's the democratic governments who make decisions, and Ukraine has made...
05:19Ukrainian people have elected the president and the government, which wants Ukraine to join European Union.
05:27And Russia attacked Ukraine because of that.
05:30They did not want that Ukraine becomes a part of European family of democratic nations.
05:37And the same decision lies on the Serbia side.
05:40If they want to join the European Union, they must.
05:42We must do everything possible to help them to get to the level that they will be accepted by other
05:48European Union nations.
05:49But we should not tell the people what to do or what not to do.
05:53So, in more general terms, the EU already struggles sometimes with the decision-making among 27 member states.
06:02Now, there are 30, 35 member states in the future.
06:07That would lead many people to say, it's enough.
06:10This becomes unmanageable.
06:12What do you tell these people?
06:13Why that?
06:14As Europe had only seven members, they thought that's impossible to take decisions in 15.
06:21It's impossible to take decisions in 20.
06:23As we were joining, it was said, well, taking them, the decisions will not be possible.
06:28It is always possible.
06:30The European Union has shown that it finds the finances and it finds the solutions for administrative solutions to enlarge
06:39just because it has been the most successful economic project of the history of mankind.
06:45And we need to go on with it because if we don't, then we will lose this battle.
06:50We should step forward.
06:51Pasquale.
06:52Well, you know, Stefan, which country has been historically in Europe in favor of the enlargement?
06:59Guess one.
07:00UK.
07:01UK has been historically in favor of all the enlargement possible.
07:05You know why?
07:06Because actually, Europe, UK wants to weakening the process of integration through enlargement.
07:14And I would say, in a way, this objective was reached.
07:19This was one of the biggest objectives of Margaret Thatcher, who was not really a Europeanist in the sense of
07:25a federalist European.
07:26Actually, I see the enlargement as a process which could happen only if you manage to deepen the integration.
07:36If we do enlargement just because of military purpose, for instance, or just because we do have just one specific
07:44objective,
07:44forgetting the common market, forgetting the social dimension, forgetting the peace on which Europe is founded, then I think that
07:53we do a mistake.
07:55Enlargement is a process which needs, first of all, reform, which needs increasing.
07:59Look at the budget.
08:00We are fighting it in Europe for 1% budget.
08:04For what?
08:05How can we define that Europe if we don't have a budget to spend?
08:09With more member states, actually, this would be even more dangerous to create a common budget,
08:15because most of them are against, would be against, against the social dimension, against the spending, against the common budget,
08:22against many common objectives that we, in 1957, we thought that were very important to respect.
08:32A lot of points here.
08:34I want to go back to Rio.
08:35Are you agreeing with it?
08:36No, absolutely.
08:37I do not agree at all.
08:38I mean, we should see enlargement as an opportunity.
08:43And I'll take Ukraine because it is the biggest one.
08:46The small ones, it was talked on the scene today.
08:49The small ones, they are, say, easier, digestible for European Union.
08:54But Ukraine, with its 40 million people, is, of course, a challenge.
08:59The same thing, which was said about Poland.
09:02And today, Poland is one of the most successful economies, even through the recession times.
09:08Poland was very solid on its economy, and it's now one of the pillars of European Union.
09:15Ukraine has educated very clever people.
09:18Ukraine has the biggest national resources of Europe.
09:21I'm not talking about agriculture, but even the natural resources are the biggest in Europe.
09:27It should be seen as an opportunity, as an opportunity to get stronger with a bigger market,
09:34with economical wealth against all the other nations who are competing with us.
09:39I mean, the United States is much bigger, how somehow they manage to deal with themselves.
09:46And they also have bigger problems.
09:49Of course they have.
09:50Everybody has.
09:50Do you agree with this?
09:51Do you agree with this assessment?
09:53Well, since you made that comparison with the United States, we are bigger, 27 today.
09:58We did not even manage to have a common policy against the tariff of Trump.
10:03Because we disagree with the approach that we need to maintain against Trump.
10:07If we are 35, do you think that it would be easy to find a trade policy, a common answer
10:12to Trump?
10:13Well, this is what I mean when enlargement done without a process could even weaken Europe.
10:20I'm not prejudicial against enlargement.
10:22Actually, I'm in favor of the enlargement.
10:24I think that enlargement before that needs to create common policy, reform in the institutional setting,
10:33and as well a reflection of what Europe is about.
10:38Europe is about a market.
10:40Well, we do not need a European Union if Europe is about a market.
10:43We just have a trade union then.
10:46Europe is about a social dimension, an economic dimension,
10:49a common idea of where we want to be in 20, 50, 100 years from now.
10:56Okay, let me stop you right there.
10:58As we're just getting warmed up here, it's now time for gloves off.
11:07Now, we want the viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament,
11:10where members ask each other questions and respond to each other directly.
11:17That means we want our contenders today to challenge each other directly,
11:21just as you do in the hemicycle in Strasbourg and Brussels.
11:25So, let's get started.
11:26And I'm going to start with you, Rio.
11:28What's your question to Pasquale?
11:30I have heard your arguing about that the European defense policy is dominated by Estonia.
11:39Do you really think that one million people can dominate anything, first?
11:43But secondly, do you think that we should neglect the possibility of trying to dominate defense
11:50after Russia has attacked Estonia in the last thousand years 42 times,
11:55which makes it every 25 years, and we are right now on the 30, 50 year of our independence?
11:59So, do you really think that Estonia should shut up as a small country
12:03and not talk about defense the way you posted it?
12:08No, I don't think, probably you refer to something else that I said, and I would confirm that.
12:13The three most important commissioners today in Europe,
12:17they are Dombrowski, Economy, Kubilius, Defense, and Callas, Foreign Affair.
12:25Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.
12:27So, this basically underlines a kind of strong interest only for that part of Europe.
12:36I understand the current period, the current moment in which we live.
12:40But if we don't bring Europe together, then Europe will weaken itself.
12:44So, I'm not against Estonia.
12:45I love Estonia.
12:46I've been teaching in Tallinn for a while.
12:48I've been quite international in Europe, traveling and teaching, which is my profession,
12:54in many Eastern Europeans.
12:56Actually, my PhD was about enlargement of Eastern Europe.
13:01And I focus exactly on the case of Poland.
13:03You know why Poland is a successful case that you manage?
13:06Because it managed to create the right institutions before, since 1993.
13:12Before, with a sort of therapy, reforming the state, building the nation within.
13:18And then, expanding policy, embracing Europe, the conditionality of Copenhagen in primus.
13:24And this was a successful case because of that.
13:26I'm not against Poland, I'm in favor.
13:28Pascal, I want you to ask a question to Rio also.
13:32Don't forget.
13:33Do you think that Europe actually needs to increase the budget to face the challenge that we are facing?
13:40Starting from social dimension, the protest of today in most of European countries,
13:45which actually underlines suffering, the crisis of the automotive, the crisis of industry.
13:52Do you think that the market alone can save us, along with the military, probably, conversion of the industry?
13:59Or do you think that actually we need to increase the budget and having unanimity as well in deep process
14:04of decision?
14:05I think the European Union needs to have the budget for its common projects.
14:09But I think the problems lie in the nations who are not following the master's criteria.
14:16And the nations should get their own finances intact in the way that you will be able to pay your
14:23social services,
14:24you will be able to pay even for defense.
14:26Because the security and defense policy, as foreign policy, is the responsibility of the European member nations and not the
14:36European Union.
14:37Europe should concentrate on competitiveness of the European as a whole.
14:42And the competitiveness has suffered a lot in the last years because of the very weak governments,
14:48say, in France, with a huge national debt.
14:53In Estonia, our national debt is 20%.
14:57Most of the European countries have it around 100% or more.
15:02You should have finances intact in your own countries and not increase the European budget for that.
15:09So you use the common money.
15:11So it's like a big guy, a small guy.
15:14First we eat your sausage and then each of us eats his own.
15:19I don't think that is a good policy.
15:21All right. Thank you so much for this round.
15:22We've heard your views from our guests.
15:26Now it's time to hear from a new voice.
15:33And let's bring in the voice of Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission President.
15:38Just a few weeks ago, she characterized EU enlargement as this.
15:42And I quote,
15:43Enlargement of our union is a geopolitical imperative.
15:47Today, we're laying the groundwork to ensure that the larger union is also a stronger one.
15:53So, geopolitical imperative, Pascuala.
15:57Let's talk about the elephant in the room here, Russia.
16:00Has Russia's war against Ukraine turned enlargement into a matter of European security?
16:06Well, evidently, yes, meaning that this is a fact.
16:11We are now speaking about enlargement exactly because of the geopolitical dimension.
16:15But this, I think, is the mistake.
16:17As far as we treat enlargement as a geopolitical dimension,
16:21we incur in the problem that I was underlining before.
16:24We forget about economy, we forget about social dimension,
16:28we forget about the issue on which 1957 Rome Treaty was founded.
16:34So, then I think that the phrase of Ursula von der Leyen,
16:39with due respect, should be a little bit reformulated.
16:42Rio, what do you think?
16:43Did we change the rules here?
16:45We're purely looking at security.
16:48No, I think Europe is a peace project.
16:50Europe has been a peace project from the very beginning.
16:52And I remember I was one of those who was working hard in the embassy
16:58towards European Union and NATO.
17:01And we have defined these aims already early 1990s
17:06because we saw it as something which delivers also security.
17:11And it is the same today.
17:13It has not changed.
17:14But Europe's focus should be still a competitiveness of European nations in the world
17:20because this is the strength.
17:23Last year, we overcome China as a gross domestic product
17:27and now rating second after the United States.
17:31We should use this power, this economic power to influence.
17:36But nobody listens to us if we don't have weapons.
17:38So we need to demilitarize ourselves back to the level where we were listened to.
17:44Today, Putin does not listen to us.
17:46We have seen President Stoob talking to Putin,
17:51got a lecture from him about the history.
17:55We should show that we are strong and we need to be counted with.
18:00Pasquale, we've heard about Russian influence in the Western Balkans,
18:07even in Western Europe, but in the Western Balkans in particular.
18:11Isn't that a reason more to say we need to admit these countries
18:16because otherwise they are left to Russian whims and Russian aggression?
18:24Well, it depends.
18:25It depends on what we mean by conditionality that Russia is exerting on Montenegro,
18:32on Serbia and so on.
18:34Those people, first of all, think about religion.
18:36Those people are mostly in Serbia, in Orthodox.
18:40They have a link, not with Putin.
18:42They have a link with some legacy, with some tradition.
18:45Do we need to ask to these people, forget about your religion,
18:48forget about your patriarch?
18:50I don't think that this is a good approach from us,
18:53from a democratic point of view.
18:55We still claim, and we are a democratic union,
18:58so that we need to accept the legacy of the country.
19:02Then, as far as, of course, we think about political influences,
19:06choices, trade, well, this needs to be discussed,
19:11and I will not be in favor.
19:13Do you agree?
19:14Do I agree that people need to have their culture taken care of?
19:18Yes, I do.
19:19I think religion is something which is a freedom of religion,
19:23is one of the core principles of European Union.
19:26I mean, I have no problem.
19:27But the problem is that Russia does not use Orthodox Church as a free will,
19:33but as a KGB following organization,
19:38which just influences the minds of the people
19:41in order to be with Putin in this war of aggression against Ukraine.
19:47Yeah, talk about people.
19:49We will do that in our next round, which is the fourth one.
20:00Well, let's take a look at how European citizens follow the current debates
20:04on enlargement and what their thinking is, especially their worries.
20:09And here we have a special Eurobarometer survey from 2025
20:13that still offers some eye-opening clues.
20:16So when people across Europe are asked about their worries
20:19when it comes to enlargement, 36% say, well,
20:23it creates more complicated decision-making at EU level.
20:2637% it's the cost to European taxpayers that is worrying.
20:3139% say corruption, organized crime and terrorism.
20:36And 40% uncontrolled migration.
20:39How do you see these numbers, Pasquale?
20:41Does anything surprise you here?
20:43Well, not much.
20:44I think that this is quite true.
20:48It reflects very much as well the preoccupation of some citizens in Italy,
20:54which is my country.
20:55The cost of living today is very high in the priority.
20:59And people in Europe, people in Italy, underline the fact that the decision-making
21:07at European level is so slow, is so complex and so complicated.
21:11That's why when I say we need to first change our institution
21:15and that's why the institution of the country,
21:17which is making accession to Europe before making enlargement,
21:24because this is what citizens would understand.
21:27Otherwise, actually, what we have seen in the last years
21:31is basically an increase of sovereignism,
21:34which is detrimental for the process of European integration.
21:38If we do not care about social issues, about cost of living,
21:41about cost of wage, which are not increasing,
21:45inflation, which is eroding, purchasing power,
21:48then we don't bring all the citizens together.
21:49And this is what we need to do.
21:51Ria, are we not, we as European Union,
21:55communicating enough the advantages of enlargement.
22:00I mean, this uncontrolled migration,
22:0240% of people worry about this.
22:04Is this justified?
22:05I think it is.
22:06I mean, we need to listen to the people.
22:09But first, the governments of the countries need to listen to the people.
22:13But there are certain things Europe can do.
22:15And, of course, the question about bureaucracy,
22:18which was one of the threats also,
22:20is something we need to deal with,
22:22because bureaucracy has a tendency to create more bureaucracy.
22:26We need to cut the red tape.
22:28We need to decrease significantly the European bureaucracy,
22:32because a lot of money comes always with bureaucracy,
22:35but we need to control the bureaucracy.
22:37Second thing is, absolutely, we need to combat the migration
22:41the same way we are dealing with the defense issues on the eastern border.
22:45We need to take care of the Mediterranean
22:48and all the questions of migration.
22:50And not invite everybody to be part of it,
22:53not legally or illegally.
22:57We need to concentrate on what our people want in our countries,
23:02and Europe should take the bigger challenges.
23:05Pascuala, we've seen time and again
23:07the political potency of the migration issue in Europe,
23:11in the public discourse,
23:13and, of course, in election campaigns.
23:17Is it fair to say that migration and the migration issue
23:21is one of the biggest threats to enlargement?
23:25Because if the population is against it for this reason,
23:30what do we do?
23:31Yeah, probably it is.
23:32Probably it is part of the issue,
23:34because people and citizens are scared.
23:38Within a scarcity period as today,
23:41economies are not growing in Europe, actually.
23:43Most of the European countries' economies are stagnating,
23:46wages are not increasing,
23:47inflation is taking purchasing power.
23:50And then citizens think, wrongly I would say,
23:53but actually we need to explain that it is not the case,
23:56that migration may be an opportunity,
23:59as far as legal migration we are thinking,
24:02and as far as the opportunity of job are there.
24:07Look, there is a demographic issue in Europe.
24:12In Italy, as well as most of European countries,
24:15in Italy, fertility rate is 1,1.
24:17We actually have challenged our pension system,
24:21because in most of European Union,
24:23the pension system relies on the number of workers working,
24:26working not only with artificial intelligence,
24:28doing the smart things, but working as well,
24:31in manufacture, in building construction, in agriculture.
24:35And nobody today, of European cities,
24:37in mostly cases, would like to do this job.
24:40So there is a demand of labour,
24:42which is as well a need for migration,
24:46which is legally integrated.
24:47I think that if we explain to citizens the need for migration,
24:52as far as demand of labour is concerned,
24:55then we can let them accept migration as part of a deal
25:01within the European Union.
25:02Italy has been a country of huge migration,
25:06from south of Europe, from south of Italy,
25:08to north of Europe.
25:09Within the European Union, this was a resource.
25:12So if we look at the issue in this sense,
25:15but then, you see, we are not speaking about defence,
25:17we are speaking about social issues, labour market issues.
25:21We are speaking about opportunity for demand of labour,
25:24and not about an abstract construction,
25:27which has to do with defence and military issues.
25:30Okay.
25:32That will close this round.
25:33Thank you so much.
25:34And now it's time to move on to our fifth and last round.
25:42And here I'm going to ask you a set of questions
25:45to which you can only answer yes or no.
25:49Okay?
25:50Yeah.
25:50Yes, yes.
25:51Good.
25:52We are going to start with you.
25:54Is a bigger EU a necessarily stronger EU?
25:58Yes.
26:00Well, yes.
26:01Okay.
26:02Should there be a reform of the treaties
26:04before further enlargement?
26:06Yes.
26:06No.
26:08Okay.
26:10Should Ukraine be an EU member before 2030?
26:14If merit paced, if it fits the conditions?
26:18Conditional yes.
26:19Conditional yes.
26:21Well, we need to change first the treaty,
26:24the institutional reform.
26:27We need to change...
26:28So that's...
26:29There are some conditionalities.
26:31Okay.
26:31Should we end the national veto on enlargement in general?
26:35No.
26:36No.
26:36No.
26:37No?
26:37Okay.
26:38Can Serbia join without abandoning its ties to Russia?
26:44If Serbia fulfills the requirements, then yes.
26:50If we are speaking about cultural links, no, I don't care.
26:54If we are speaking about political or defense link, well, this is not.
26:59Okay.
27:00Then, has enlargement become a test of Europe's geopolitical credibility?
27:05It has always been.
27:06Yeah.
27:07Okay.
27:08Thank you very much.
27:09That brings us to the end of this edition of The Ring.
27:12Thanks again to Pasquale and Rio for a lively conversation here from the European Enlargement Summit.
27:19Thanks to your audience here at home.
27:21If you like, you can continue the conversation by sending us your comments to thering at euronews.com.
27:28We love to have your feedback.
27:31That's it for this edition.
27:32I'm Stefan Gobel.
27:33Take care.
27:34And see you soon.
27:35Adios.
27:36Thank you.
27:36Thank you very much.
27:38Thank you.
27:39Thank you very much.
27:40Thank you very much.
27:41Thank you very much.