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The EU Must Drop Second Thoughts About Growing

The EU Must Drop Second Thoughts About Growing

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- European Union member states’ ministers have failed to agree on opening accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, mainly because of France’s staunch opposition. France is making a mistake. The EU benefits from showing its membership is open to countries that aspire to it, and it loses soft power by appearing ungenerous and unwilling to keep earlier promises.

France’s stated position is that membership talks as held now are “an endless soap opera,” in the words of French European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin, and that the process needs to be reformed for greater efficiency and transparency. Those are worthy goals, but they shouldn’t shut down the pathway to accession altogether.

The process can, indeed, last a long time. Finland holds the accession speed record, having completed the talks in less than three years. About a decade is more normal for eastern European nations (Slovenia did it in 8 years, Romania in more than 11). But the EU does set high standards for new members and tells them up front what is expected, with systematic progress reports. No process is ever perfect.

In reality, France (and the Netherlands, which is wary of opening negotiations with Albania) are resisting the enlargement talks because of domestic political concerns. These are the two EU countries whose populations are most against efforts to enlarge the bloc.

The EU Must Drop Second Thoughts About Growing

Not surprisingly, support for further EU enlargement is higher in countries that have joined the most recently than in the older member states. Expansion backers live in countries for which EU membership has been aspirational, and which have been rewarded with significant amounts of EU aid for jumping through the hoops of the accession process. Joining them are western European countries that also have benefited from EU development projects or crisis-era aid, such as Spain, Ireland and Portugal. In countries that have to cough up the aid, further enlargement is unpopular even if the candidate countries are small.

This is essentially a wealth divide. On the one side are those who believe the EU should only accept new members that are self-sufficient and institutionally developed. On the other are those who see not just the accession process but the first years of membership as an opportunity to learn, catch up and, in some cases, go for a guaranteed peaceful future. But there aren’t any prosperous Finlands left for the EU to take in. Iceland has given up its candidacy, and Norway doesn’t want in, either. And the U.K. wants out.

The Balkans and portions of the former Soviet Union are the only directions in which the EU can expand. It has already taken steps in both directions, admitting, on the one hand, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, and on the other hand, the Baltic states. Stopping at this would be inconsistent. And in the cases of North Macedonia and Albania, it would mean betraying a clear promise. 

This promise to “set out the path” for the start of accession talks in June 2019 was made by the European Council in June 2018. For both countries, that was conditional on progress in certain areas, such as reforming their judiciaries and anti-corruption safeguards. In May 2019, the European Commission released progress reports on both countries. It found that both North Macedonia and Albania have made “good progress” on the criteria specified. Freezing them out at this point is the opposite of making the accession process more transparent and efficient. It would be unclear what else the two countries can do for the talks to open.

It’s obvious that neither country is fully prepared for membership in terms of institutional maturity — that could take another 10 years. But they’re at least as advanced as other east European countries when they started negotiations. For example, the Commission’s 1997 report recommending the beginning off accession talks with the Czech Republic, the east European country whose public is most opposed to expansion today, was similar in tone and content to the recent reports on the Western Balkan nations.

In most of the EU’s wealthier countries, governments support opening the talks with North Macedonia and Albania. The EU’s proven ability to help poorer countries get richer is the bloc’s second-greatest strength — after its ability to maintain peace on a traditionally war-torn continent. North Macedonia, which has promised to resolve a long-standing conflict with neighbor Greece to be able to join the EU, has an economy weakened by mass emigration and previous governments’ blatant corruption. It could be a poster child for both of the EU’s main selling points. It’s starting from such a low point that working to join the bloc can only lift it.

Instead of creating unnecessary obstacles, the French government should explain these advantages to voters — and also spell out how tiny the required amount of economic aid likely will be for Europe’s major economies. Bulgaria, with more than twice the gross domestic product and 1.4 times the population of Albania and North Macedonia combined, received a net contribution of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) from the EU in 2018, the latest year for which data are available. France put up about 17% of that, or 284 million euros. That’s equivalent to about 4 euros per French resident for the year.

For that kind of money, France could buy a boost in the global political prestige and business reputation of an alliance in which it plays a starring role. It’s an unbeatable deal. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has billed himself as a champion of a strong EU, should be able to sell it to his voters.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.

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