Representatives of 10 EU member States, including Belgium, met in a Brussels hotel on Friday morning to discuss the enlarging of the European Union to include Ukraine.
This was confirmed by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
The meeting was held before the start of the second day of this week’s European summit.
“If countries join us, they have duties to perform, but so do we,” the Prime Minister said after the end of the European summit. He noted that the accession of countries such as Ukraine would have major consequences for the policies to be pursued and financial flows. “If countries join us, we have to be ready,” he said.
According to the Politico website, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland also took part in this informal meeting. “The idea was to take the temperature on enlargement within a sample of countries,” De Croo said.
Ukraine and Moldova were last year granted the prized status of candidate country. The European Commission is due to give its opinion in the autumn on the progress of the reforms undertaken by each candidate with a view to accession.
Where Ukraine is concerned, there have been increasing calls in recent weeks for negotiations on the country’s accession to be launched by the end of the year. The subject will be an important theme of the Belgian presidency of the European Council, which begins in January, following that of Spain.
The Union and its Member States therefore need to begin preparing for EU enlargement, as the consequences will be significant in both economic and political terms (cohesion funds, common agricultural policy, budget, etc.)
