Many have called the December 2023 European Council meeting as historic. Indeed, after quite a while it has moved the EU enlargement agenda forward by taking decisions to open the accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, by giving the candidate status to Georgia on the understanding it has to make progress on further steps, and by laying down flagships for opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Hungary has abstained, its Prime Minister bluntly, without explaining, stated he is not part of this decision, so he left it to the EU of 26. According to EU rules, under unanimous voting, abstention does not prevent a decision from being taken.
Now it is up to EU Council, together with European Commission, to execute the political decisions. The EU will have to adopt the negotiating framework, the so-called general principles of accession negotiations, start the screening and to convene the first intergovernmental accession conference for the delegations to start the deliberations on EU legislative commitments, upon which the Council will have to decide on opening and closing of as many as 35 (presently) negotiating chapters.
The candidates will have to prepare too. They will need to appoint their delegations, chief negotiators, working groups, national coordination rules and ensure adequate public administration capacity is in place to manage the process, which, first of all, will be about building trust and credibility that the negotiating commitments will work. Only then we can expect the negotiations will have a momentum and move forward chapter by chapter and cluster by cluster.
Time will show soon, if these decisions were historic not only for Ukraine or Moldova, but also for the EU and its decision-making process, which will have to learn from the Hungarian episodes and its further intentions for the months to come. The fate of these decisions will also depend on the EU’s commitment to enlargement.
The European Parliament has already set the guidelines for enlargement process to be successful. One of its recommendations was for the EU to establish the Commissioner for Enlargement and to create the Directorate General for Enlargement within the new structure of the next European Commission. Another recommendation was to set the timeframe allowing accession negotiations to be concluded by the end of the current decade at the latest.
European Parliament resolution: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231208IPR15784/meps-open-accession-talks-with-ukraine-moldova-and-bosnia-and-herzegovina
History is made with hands of EU institutions and policy leaders. Future of Europe will be defined by its enlargement and victory of Ukraine. The EU member states, their elites will have to live up to that while preparing for the European Parliament and national elections in 2024.
Screenshot: EbS live
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