LISBOA, July 18 – Portugal, which took over the rotating Presidency of the European Union on July 1, has made clear that enlargement of the EU remains high on the agenda for the next six months, according to the European newsletter issued Wednesday.
“The reform of the Union should facilitate the fulfillment of existing commitments on the enlargement process, commitments that must be respected”, according to its official program.
“The benefits of this endeavor are obvious, through its contribution to peace, stability and prosperity in Europe. The EU should develop and consolidate these gains.” It goes on: “The development of a European perspective for the Western Balkans has been a central feature of the EU’s agenda. Reforms necessary to stabilize and bring countries closer to the Union should be intensified.”
The strong southern emphasis in Portugal’s Presidency (with a particular focus on Africa, the Mediterranean, and Latin America) will not lead it to neglect “other crucial concerns such as the stabilization of the Balkans or relations with Russia”, prime minister Jos顓ocrates promised when he addressed the European Parliament on July 11.
As he remarked: “In the second half of 2007, unavoidable decisions must be taken about delicate questions on the global agenda” – and the first example he gave was Kosovo.
Manuel Lobo Antunes, Portugal’s Secretary of State for European Affairs, emphasized that “enlargement issues will be equally analyzed in our Presidency” when he outlined the program in Brussels on June 28.
“Turkey, Croatia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia dossiers and the European perspective of the Western Balkans countries will be on the table”, he said, adding that all accession negotiations have “a final objective: the accession of the candidate countries to the EU once the stipulated criteria are totally fulfilled”.
The Secretary of State underlined that there were “DutiesŠon both sides. On one hand, the EU must negotiate on the basis of goodwill and transparency. The commitments assumed by the Member States must be respected. On the other hand, the accession criteria, valid for any candidate country, determines the strict respect for the values and principles that were the great contribution of the Age of Enlightenment to what Europeans are today and want to go on being.”
Portugal’s position, said Lobo Antunes, is that “leadership of this process, from the EU side, must be on the Commission’s shoulders. The Commission knows deeply in detail these dossiers and also has a global perspective on them, which gives them the responsibility to synthesize the general interest.”
He pointed out that while the last round of accessions was coherent with the European ideal of building peace and stability in the European continent through democracy and shared prosperity, “This fate still has to be fulfilled in some parts of Europe: take the Western Balkans as an example. Europe cannot have a ‘black hole’ within and, consequently, it seems right that the hoped for stability of that region has to be accompanied by a tangible perspective of European accession.”
The Portuguese Presidency has scheduled a ministerial-level meeting with the Western Balkans for October 4. The EU will be represented by ministers from what is known as the troika – the current Presidency, Germany (which has just completed its Presidency) and Slovenia (which will take over the EU Presidency for six months at the start of 2008). It has also scheduled a troika meeting of EU Political Directors with Turkey on September 18.
