Speaking upon his arrival at the EU–Western Balkans Summit in Tivat, Merz said that French President Emmanuel Macron and he had presented a concrete proposal on how to move forward with the next steps and how to make enlargement possible, particularly for some of the Western Balkan countries.
“The European Union must show that it is capable of enlargement and that it wants enlargement, and that is what we want to discuss here. There is, of course, a whole range of issues that we must address and resolve together, but above all it must be clear that this part of Europe belongs to the future of the European Union,” Merz said.
He also stressed that “the fact that no new member has been admitted for 13 years shows that there have been shortcomings on the part of the European Union as well”.
“I hope that we will reach common conclusions that will then be implemented in Brussels. It is not only today that matters, but also the implementation of what is agreed in the days and weeks ahead. I am encouraged by the discussions we had this morning. Nevertheless, there is still a long road ahead of us. However, the task is achievable. Some member states have already made sufficient progress, and particularly the host country, so we can achieve common results very quickly,” Merz said.
He also mentioned Serbia and said that it is doing an excellent job.
“I had excellent discussions with President Vučić, he is doing an excellent job for Serbia. Montenegro has accomplished a great deal, but Serbia is key to the Balkans,” he added.
He concluded by saying that the countries of the Western Balkans want to join the EU, but that they are at different stages of the accession process.
Ahead of the summit, Germany and France proposed giving future EU members more opportunities to participate in EU programmes and gain access to the Single Market before becoming full members of the bloc.
Last month, Merz also proposed granting Ukraine a new status of “associate member”, which would allow Ukrainian officials to participate in EU summits and ministerial meetings without voting rights, as a transitional step towards full membership.
France and Germany propose gradual integration of candidate countries into the EU
France and Germany have proposed a new EU enlargement model under which candidate countries would be gradually integrated into the Union’s institutions, decision-making processes and Single Market even before obtaining full membership.
The proposal was presented in a non-paper entitle “A New Momentum for Enlargement”, prepared ahead of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Tivat.