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    INTERVIEW / Viola von Cramon: “We need a new enlargement strategy, with reversibility and benefits for candidates”

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    Brussels – A new Eu enlargement strategy to overcome the stalemates and protracted delays shown by the ongoing process in the Western Balkans. In an interview with Eunews, Viola von Cramon Taubadel, MEP of the Green/Ale Mep and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Afet), explains how the Eu institutions need a change of direction, also considering the new candidates in Eastern Europe and the risks of destabilization in countries left outside the European Union.
    In MEP Viola von Cramon’s point of view, the starting point should be the recommendation on the new enlargement strategy, approved in the Afet Committee and now awaiting the final Parliament’s vote in plenary session. This could be a base to strengthen the trust of the candidate partners, with an eye to the EU-Western Balkans Summit scheduled in Tirana on December 6.
    What is the cornerstone of the recommendation concerning the new EU Enlargement Strategy?
    Viola von Cramon: “There are two important elements. One of the key developments brought by the revamping of enlargement methodology in 2020 was reversibility. I therefore think that the message that some countries backslide in certain areas is an important message only if there are consequences for that – no progress in EU accession talks, no funds, etc. Therefore, we want to make conditionality meaningful – linked to the rule of law, democracy and Common Foreign and Security Policy alignment.
    The second element is the fact that enlargement gained new impetus with the war in Ukraine. It is again the talk of the town and pushes us to rethink and reengage with new approaches, how to accommodate the candidates from Eastern Partnership with the ones from the Western Balkans. The Strategy aims to clarify that irrespective of the newcomers, we have to be credible and deliver in the Western Balkans as otherwise our promise in the East will not be taken seriously”.
    What was the main objectives of your amendments to improve the new Strategy?
    Viola von Cramon: “My main objective was to twofold – to reinforce the conditionality and to front-load the benefits for those in the process. As regards the collaboration in Afet, I believe that there is a huge majority of MEPs across political groups who are in favor of the enlargement as such. Of course, there are always some differences, but the overall objective was clear to all big groups”.
    How do you think the Western Balkans’ partners will benefit from the new Strategy, once adopted?
    Viola von Cramon: “I am afraid that this does not become yet another paper done in Brussels. The idea is to engage truly with the Western Balkans partners and to award the ones who genuinely work on bringing their countries and societies closer to the Union. In that sense, the paper reinforces the idea of accelerated integration – phasing in in the sectoral policies once the countries met the criteria.
    A special emphasis is put on the role of civil society, in many aspects a crucial stakeholder across the region. Once you have the captured state or a government, you naturally turn to the civil society organizations as someone who provides you with credible assessment and perspective”.
    The Enlargement Package 2022 recommends the Council to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina the candidate status, even if the countries does not seem to have made major improvements on the 14 priorities. Is this reasonable?
    Viola von Cramon: “The Greens have organized a delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina before the elections and we clearly said – couple of crucial conditions need to be met in order to get the candidate status. We understood the sense of geopolitical urgency, as well as injustice that might have been felt in Bosnia due to Ukraine’s candidate status. People were asking us – should we start the war again to get it? And we understood very well that message.
    However, the unconditional granting would only go in hand of rooted nationalistic political options such as Sda, Snsd and Hdz BiH, so we also want to communicate it clearly – this is a reward to the citizens, not to the corrupted elites, and that must be clear”.
    Meanwhile, Serbia keeps raising concerns for the non-alignment with the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy, in particular on the sanctions against Russia.
    Viola von Cramon: “The signals are indeed worrying. For the very first time, even though it could have been done in previous years as well in the rule of law area, we have backsliding. Serbia has only 45 per cent of alignment with EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, a decline of 20 per cent compared to the last report. The trend is clear and the situation is untenable. We have sent the clear message to President Aleksandar Vučić – either you are with us when we need the European unity, or you are against.
    The Serbian balancing act is unacceptable and the consequences may be effective stopping of Serbia’s accession talks. We do want to see Serbia in the Ee, but for that to happen Serbia needs to do a U-turn in its foreign policy and clearly demonstrate the solidarity with Ukraine”.
    What do you think about the French-German proposal on the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue?
    Viola von Cramon: “I cannot comment on the content or on the existence of the proposal, but I do find this as a welcomed and timely initiative. The key European capitals are involved and we do need to see the political steering of the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue in order to move things forward.
    This is a unique window of opportunity as we have full trans-Atlantic unity on this issue and no elections in the upcoming period, so I strongly encourage both sides to use it and the mediation of Eu Special representative Miroslav Lajčák to come to a sustainable, comprehensive agreement. Without it, neither of the two will be able to join the EU”.

    The Green/Ale MEP, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Afet), underlines the key-points of the European Parliament’s recommendation and warns that “we have to be credible and deliver in the Western Balkans, as otherwise our promise in the East will not be taken seriously” LEGGI TUTTO

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      EU IDEA project, differentiation as a tool for European integration. Reynders: “But the rule of Law is the limit”

      Brussels – The last dance. The EU IDEA project has come to an end, with a final conference that presented the project’s results and discussed the theme of differentiation and integration among researchers, EU representatives and experts. The two-day event (April 20-21) was organized in Brussels, within the framework of EU IDEA – Integration and Differentiation for Effectiveness and Accountability: it addressed all the aspects of differentiated integration as a strategic choice, as the European Union is dealing with its manifold internal and external challenges.
      The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, at the EU IDEA final conference in Brussels (credits: Federico Baccini)
      EU IDEA is a project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon2020 programme and led by Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) – with the participation of Eunews as media partner – and its aim is to deepen differentiation and integration issues, in order to find viable solutions to the current challenges that the EU is facing. This is even more valid following the Russian aggression of Ukraine, considering the necessity to improve the future European security order amid persistent fragmentation and divergence in the European integration project. However, “differentiation and flexibility have no place in certain specific areas, such as the respect of the key-values of the European Union”, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, made it clear during his key-note speech.

      Human rights, rule of Law, solidarity, equality, independence of justice. “All Member States must align themselves with these key-principles, this is the commitment at the time of accession to the EU, not an imposition of the European Commission”, Reynders stressed, explaining why “we can work on differentiation, but not in the case of the respect of the rule of Law“. Inside and outside the EU (among those countries that want to be part of the Union), “there are many legislations and traditions, we are not asking to standardize all legal systems, but to apply the same principles for a common approach”. The Ukrainian crisis shows that “we must continue to commit in our values, if we want to be credible in the world and to demand respect for human rights from Russia“, the European Commissioner for Justice concluded.

      The final conference

      The Head of EU, politics and institutions programme at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and EU IDEA project coordinator, Nicoletta Pirozzi, at the final conference in Brussels (credits: Federico Baccini)
      Moderated by Nicoletta Pirozzi, Head of EU, politics and institutions programme at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and EU IDEA project coordinator, the conference first focused on how history and narratives around differentiation influence today’s state of the EU. “It emerged as a tool to cope with the different member States’ points of view and with growing heterogeneity”, Marco Brunazzo, Professor at University of Trento, stated, while his colleague at the University of Oslo John Erik Fossum pointed out that “it requires the development of some mechanisms to prevent weaknesses in the institutional system”. Differentiated integration “has two faces, one positive and one negative”, Ingrid Shikova, Professor at the Sofia University “St.Kliment Ohridski”, stressed, considering that “also in the future, who wants to do more, will do more, but who wants to do less, will do less”. Following the suggestion of Piero Tortola, Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen – “I wonder whether there is a return to unified integration narrative” – Jim Closs, TEPSA Secretary General, underlined that “every single crisis has shown that we need more integration and that basic key-values, such as the respect of rule of Law and human rights, are out of question“.
      Democracy and legitimacy are the cornerstones of a differentiated EU, in order to guarantee “an increase of effectiveness in inputs and responsibilities”, Matteo Bonomi, Research Fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), stated. Funda Tekin, Director of the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP), stressed that “the key for legitimation of differentiation policies is represented by the preferences of political elites and national public opinion” and her colleague Janis Emmanoulidis, Director of Studies, European Policy Centre (EPC), pointed out that “in the next future, we will have many more debates on these topics, because differences among Member States are becoming more evident and they have to be discussed”. Daniel Freund, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA), warned that “there is not a real democratic choice on democracy, if you do not seat at the table for the decision-making process”.

      (credits: Federico Baccini)
      Differentiated integration is a process that considers also sustainability, security and solidarity inside and outside the European Union, as the Ukrainian crisis is demonstrating. “It urged a common approach in foreign affairs and military policies”, Sven Biscop, Director at the Egmont Institute, reported, echoed by Pol Morillas, Director at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB): “It emerged trust between EU leader and empathy towards Member States that could suffer because of this crisis”. Even if “unity in the response is happening now”, as Juha Jokela, Programme Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), noted, “I am skeptical on how long it will last, because it concerns the effectiveness of external differentiated integration”. Eulalia Rubio, Senior Research fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute (JDI), stressed that “there are many cases of differentiation integration, that works differently inside and outside the EU”, while Reinhard Bütikofer, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA), reminded that “unity in diversity is the very essence this concept”.

      At the very heart of the EU IDEA project there has always been the theme of Brexit, also considering the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). “Foreign affairs and security policies are out of it, with an impact even on the war in Ukraine”, Ian Bond, Director of the Centre for European Reform (CER), stated. Stefan Führing, Head of Unit of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement in the European Commission, shared the opinion that “in a broad sense, the cooperation between the two geopolitical actors is close to zero”, and Fabian Zuleeg, Chief Executive at the European Policy Centre (EPC), stressed that the TCA “is working in regulating the commercial trade, but it has a huge cost on many other aspects, such as the political cooperation”. This is “not a good relationship”, as shared also by Brigid Laffan, Former Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Professor at the European University Institute: “We are talking about the weakest possibile solution, even if at the end Brexit has strengthen the unity inside the European Union”.

      Nicoletta Pirozzi with Herman Van Rompuy (on the right) and Vivien Schmidt (on the left) at the EU IDEA final conference (credits: Federico Baccini)
      Closing the final conference of the EU IDEA project, the coordinator Nicoletta Pirozzi summed up three years of studies and working papers: “Flexibility and differentiation can be a tool for European integration, but we have to set some limits and red lines, such as the respect of the rule of Law and the reinforcement of the EU institutions and the judicial power”. Herman Van Rompuy, President Emeritus of the European Council and EPC President, is sure that “we have to be more united on the values that characterize us” and that “there will be less space for differentiation in the future”, because “unanimity is very hard to achieve in many fields in periods of no crisis”. One of the very first turning points will be the French presidential election next Sunday (April 24): “If Marine Le Pen wins, there is the risk for differentiated disintegration on our values, the European budget and the supremacy of the EU law”, Vivien Schmidt, Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and at the Boston University, warned with great concern.

      The European Commissioner for Justice took part to the final two-day conference of the EU IDEA project, led and coordinated by Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI): “All Member States must align themselves with our key-principles, if we want to be credible in the world”