To catch the enlargement train, EU candidate countries must run simultaneously with the European Union, argues the EESC’s Dimitris Dimitriadis. He says responsibility for an increasing Western Balkans' disillusionment with the EU is shared.
Georgia's controversial 'foreign agent' law profoundly changes the country's relationship with its Western partners and the EU should take the outcome of the upcoming elections as a basis to reassess its ties with Tbilisi, the country's President Salome Zourabishvili told Euractiv.
Contrary to the current European Union reform debate, it is possible to have the enlargement process and deeper EU integration run parallel, former European Commission president José Manuel Barroso told Euractiv. "A very important lesson learned from then is that it's …
Ukraine's future accession to the bloc will bring more benefits than costs, and EU member states should approve the next formal steps later this week, the country's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told Euractiv. "We are waiting and wishing to have approval …
Gradual integration of EU candidate countries into the bloc's structures is "not an alternative to membership" but the best way to keep enlargement on track and achieve faster results, Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and his North Macedonian counterpart, Bujar Osmani, told Euractiv in a joint interview.
Enlargement of the EU by 2030 is doable, but only if the candidates and the bloc itself "redouble their efforts", Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhely told EURACTIV, adding that the European Commission will make "substantial proposals" for enlargement in October.
Failure to give Ukraine the support it needs to defend itself against the Russian invasion will have a higher cost for everyone, including European countries, Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrelius Landsbergis told EURACTIV.
The French and German ministers of state for Europe, Laurence Boone and Anna Lührmann, emphasised in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV that the two countries are confident that partial institutional reform of the EU will be possible within this year.
While the EU accession process of Ukraine and Moldova is underway, it must follow a planned process and come with necessary reforms, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, French National Assembly's European Affairs Committee chairman, told EURACTIV France.
Kosovo and Serbia aim to conclude a landmark agreement on normalising relations "this year", Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview but made clear it would not be smooth sailing, despite increased Western engagement.
Despite his fall from grace, former Albanian prime minister and president Sali Berisha is not hanging up his political boots. In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV, he staunchly denied any links with organised crime, and dismissed Western sanctions against him …
After Kosovo unveiled plans to apply for EU membership before the end of the year, its president told EURACTIV in an interview that progress is being made in lobbying the five EU member states that currently do not recognise the country.
The EU accession process of the Western Balkans is not an exam you can cheat on as Greece did, and its importance has increased because of the geopolitical situation facing the region and the bloc, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama …
France is fully behind Brussels' proposals, including diversifying supply and possibly limiting energy prices, that should help the continent get through the winter unscathed, the Secretary of State for European Affairs Laurence Boone told EURACTIV France in an interview.
The EU needs institutional reform before Ukraine and Moldova can join as new members, the Green MEP Daniel Freund told EURACTIV, as the EU lawmaker outlined the main priorities ahead of the next EU elections in 2024.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has sobered up the debate about the EU’s enlargement process and shown the need to speed up the procedures, essentially halted by the previous Commission, Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
The EU's stalled accession process has become a security issue amid an increase in the influence of foreign players in the vulnerable Western Balkans region, North Macedonia's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski told EURACTIV in an interview.
Gaining EU candidate status would be a crucial and existential political message that today the door is open for Georgia, and there is light at the end of the tunnel, Tbilisi's Ambassador to the EU Vakhtang Makharoblishvili told EURACTIV.
The EU should open its doors to Ukraine, paving the way for immediate access to trade, programs, funding, transport, movement, and more, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview. Asked by EURACTIV what her thoughts are on …
Ukraine will complete by the end of this week the second part of a questionnaire on the ability of Ukraine to assume the obligations of membership and expects a positive answer in June, the country's Deputy Prime Minister for European integration, Olha Stefanishyna, told EURACTIV but added that Kyiv understands "there is no fast track" for EU membership.
With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees flooding into the country and a Russian army advancing in Ukraine toward the border with breakaway region of Transnistria, Moldova's stability is at risk, Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu told EURACTIV. With a population of …
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić knows that “Russia has become completely useless for Serbia”, but he will keep up his pro-Putin rhetoric to please his electorate in the run-up to the elections on 3 April, says Orhan Dragaš, a security expert in Belgrade.
The West must stop Russia's President Vladimir Putin now, because if Kyiv falls, we will have consequences for Europe's whole East, Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Janša told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia should start immediately, and political issues with Bulgaria can be resolved as the chapters are opened, according to Metodija Koloski, president of the United Macedonian Diaspora.
