The idea of making the European Union bigger will be under the spotlight at two consecutive summits of European countries this week in Granada, Spain.
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00:00 It`s enlargement time. The idea of making the EU bigger has been gaining momentum since
00:05 the start of the war in Ukraine. And it will now be one of the main topics at two consecutive
00:10 summits of European leaders this week in Granada, Spain.
00:14 Western Balkan countries, which have already been in the queue for decades and newcomers
00:18 like Ukraine and Moldova, have stepped up pressure on the bloc, as they look to join
00:23 the club as soon as possible.
00:26 But before the EU grows from being a 27-member union to more than 30, nearly everyone agrees
00:32 that some things have to change.
00:34 There will have to be a reorientation of the big spending priorities on agriculture and
00:39 cohesion because, obviously, Ukraine, if it came in without any change, would eat up most
00:44 of the budget, and that will not be acceptable to many member states. So, there will have
00:49 to be a difficult negotiation in terms of the budget, who pays in, who gets what, what
00:54 the priorities will be.
00:56 He adds that previous rounds of enlargement missed the opportunity to reform the current
01:00 unanimity vote to avoid vetoes in key topics like foreign affairs. And it`s an idea that
01:06 the larger EU countries share as well.
01:09 In a recent report on enlargement by France and Germany, it highlighted exactly this.
01:15 The text also proposes creating different levels of membership.
01:19 But for this Romanian MEP, belonging to the EU should mean the same rules for everyone.
01:24 We need to be very careful in not having second-hand countries within the European
01:33 Union because I heard a lot of talk here in Brussels as well about the idea of having,
01:38 I don`t know, first-grade countries, maybe the old countries, and then newer countries
01:43 to be like second-hand countries. And it`s a very bad thing and it`s a very bad idea.
01:49 Whatever the outcome in Granada, EU accession is a long and tedious process. And faced with
01:54 an already difficult task when it comes to member states voting, leaders will have a
01:58 difficult decision to make on whether they move ahead with enlarging an unreformed Europe
02:02 or one which is eventually reformed, but likely leaves candidate countries waiting even longer
02:07 in the wings.
02:08 (whooshing)
02:10 (whooshing)