EU enlargement is a geostrategic imperative

Enlargement to the East and the Western Balkans is a geostrategic imperative and will require reforms on both sides, writes Paulo Rangel.

Paulo Rangel is the foreign minister of Portugal.

When almost two hundred million European citizens cast their votes at the polls in May 2019, no one—or almost no one—could have predicted the five years that followed. Five years that felt more like a return to the past: a pandemic unprecedented since the Spanish Flu and a large-scale invasion of a European country.

New arguments quickly emerged to support the thesis that Europe is progressing from crisis to crisis. The pandemic received a rapid and common response in the acquisition of vaccines and the creation of NextGenerationEU. It witnessed the determination of the Union and its member states to support the defence and independence of a sovereign nation because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

No one can, therefore, guess what the next five years will bring. But we can – and should – expect the unexpected. And prepare the European Union to deal with the predictable crises that we are still experiencing and the unpredictable ones that we will experience, providing it with mechanisms and an adequate budget.

It is necessary to provide the predictability essential for the good application of European funds and the flexibility needed for a prompt and effective response to emerging crises.

Perhaps this was the most important lesson from the last five years.

The next few months will establish a new political cycle in the European Union. A Parliament that will have to co-legislate on important matters—defence, ecological transition, emerging technologies—a new European Commission that will have to present legislative proposals for a changing Europe and monitor accession negotiations with candidate countries, and a Council that will have to reach difficult consensuses and compromises at 27. All of this will result from the democratic will of European citizens.

All of this leads us to contemplate the future of the Union, the major theme for the next legislature. Enlargement to the East and the Western Balkans is a geostrategic imperative, which will require reforms on both sides.

This electoral moment should lead us to look beyond our neighbourhood, abroad and at the challenges we face there.

To the east, the war in Ukraine and the threat to the rules-based international order; to the southeast, the conflict in Gaza and a humanitarian catastrophe; and to the South, a latitude that is sometimes forgotten, the crises in the Sahel and their particularly acute consequences for the countries of Southern Europe.

The European Union has a fundamental role here. We must ensure continued political, humanitarian, financial and military support for Ukraine, promoting its accession, we must ensure urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza and do everything to achieve an immediate ceasefire, and support our African partners in eradicating the jihadist threat and the consolidation of the presence of the State and good governance through the Sahelian strip.

But we must also look to the West and the Atlantic.

This privileged space is the cradle of long-standing political, economic, and military partnerships with the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada.

For most member states, the transatlantic relationship is a fundamental guarantee of security, and the coasts of this ocean, from North to South, offer countless opportunities for the European Union, its citizens, and its economies. Concluding the EU-Mercosur Agreement is important from now on and highlights an important example.

Hundreds of millions of European citizens can express their will and see it represented in the European Parliament.

The European Union has a central role in internal and external issues, such as the economy, competitiveness, environment, innovation, energy, or geopolitical challenges, which affect us all individually and collectively.

The next five years start now.