How can a much bigger European Union function effectively? Will key national interests be overridden for the benefit of collective decision-making? How should European institutions and budgets adapt to a union of more than 30 members? These are some of the big questions that European leaders are currently mulling over. For more, Talking Europe hosts Daniela Schwarzer, the co-rapporteur of a new report: "Sailing on High Seas: Reforming and Enlarging the EU for the 21st Century". She is a member of the working group convened in 2023 by the French and German governments on reforming the EU.
When asked about the European Political Community, which has just completed its third summit, Schwarzer says: "As a reaction to Russia's war in Ukraine, as a reaction to the fact that the European security order is really destabilised, it's very important to have this kind of dialogue in a very informal setting. And there have been some results, with regards to policy debates, and particularly in the area of energy. But the European Political Community is not a waiting room for countries that want to make their way into the European Union. Countries that want to join will ask for membership and then negotiate their accession process. The European Political Community is really the place where countries can go who don't share fundamental principles that the EU has put in place, like, for instance, the rule of law. They don't want to create something more political. They just want to be in a dialogue format in a rather loose arrangement where diplomatic conversations can happen, where policymakers meet on the highest level. And that's what it's for."
Turning to the EU candidate countries, we ask Schwarzer if the EU is sending the wrong signal to candidate countries if it doesn't itself uphold the rule of law in the existing EU member states. "Absolutely," she replies. "That's one of the major weaknesses at the moment. The EU has to make sure it is credible in two regards. One is on the rule of law, human rights and other very fundamental standards. It must be credible on that, because if it is not, how can you tell candidate countries that they should be complying by those norms? And the other thing that the EU has to be credible on is its own reform process. It needs to get ready for enlargement. You can't expect candidate countries to push ahead with reforms if they don't believe that they will actually enter the club."
So how can the EU make decisions with 35 or 36 members? Would unanimous voting make it impossible to agree on anything? "That risk is indeed very high," Schwarzer says. "I think one important thing to bear in mind is that qualified majority voting is already the standard procedure in many areas where the EU passes laws, and the question is not to change that at all, but to keep that in place. But already there, Poland and Hungary have issues and other countries may raise that question as well. I think it is an absolute prerequisite that what we have achieved in terms of joint decision-making and including qualified majority voting stays in place. The bigger the EU gets and the more it may actually do other things in areas where there is not yet a competence for the EU, the more important it becomes to have efficient decision-making."
We ask if enlargement is likely to happen by 2030, as European Council President Charles Michel has said he hopes will be the case. "We have mentioned that date as well, in our report," Schwarzer responds. "But we gave that date not for enlargement but for the EU to be enlargement-ready. That's our homework. The candidates have to advance with their own preparations and it's very important to have a very clear target. Right now the ball is being passed from one side of the field to the other, saying, 'you're not getting ready, you're not getting ready'. So this clear commitment by the EU to say we will get this done in seven years is a good and strong signal to the candidate countries. We hope that the leaders will send that signal."
Produced by Sophie Samaille, Perrine Desplats, Juliette Laurain and Isabelle Romero
