Kriebaum: The Right Moment to Reexamine the EU Enlargement Method

German Minister for European Affairs Günter Kriehbaum stated that it is time for the EU to reconsider and seek new avenues for its enlargement, advocating for a multi-tiered system and associate membership that would show current candidates that they are part of the EU.

New EU enlargement is expected, but there is no complete agreement on how to implement it. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz maintains his proposal that Ukraine, Moldova, and six partners from the Western Balkans be granted „associate member“ status.

While critics say this would represent „a kind of waiting room“ or „second-class membership,“ Kriehbaum told Brussels-based Euronews that they obviously did not understand this.

„Why shouldn’t we give these countries, which would then have associate member status, of course without voting rights, the opportunity to participate in sessions of the European Parliament? It doesn’t cost us a single euro,“ said the German politician from the CDU.

Kriehbaum believes that this would also send a clear signal to China, Russia, and other countries, showing that „these countries belong to us, the EU.“

According to him, this would show candidate countries for membership that they are already somewhat part of the club, as it is important to bring them closer to and integrate them into the EU.

The German minister agrees with Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who at the EU-Western Balkans summit at the beginning of June in Montenegro called for an acceleration of the enlargement process.

He also calls for this to be done more quickly, but says that now is the right moment to critically reconsider the enlargement method itself.

Kriehbaum emphasized that there are several aspects of the current model that are no longer acceptable. He compared the accession process to the high jump, where the rule is that the „bar“ candidates must clear is set at 1.5 meters, that is, the so-called EU acquis, all the rules, the entire EU legislation, but „the acquis is no longer at 1.5 meters but at 2.1 meters because in the last ten or twenty years the legal provisions have been tightened and new rules have been added,“ Kriehbaum told Euronews.

He said that many new rules have been introduced, that the entire EU framework is no longer comparable to previous standards, and, continuing with sports terminology, that „1.5 meters was already a major challenge“ for countries in the accession process. „We must move away from this high jump competition,“ Kriehbaum said.

In contrast, the German minister proposes something „like steps or a multi-layered system“ and emphasizes that this would not be a dead end, as the final destination remains full EU membership.

Regarding the costs of EU enlargement and whether net contributors can continue to bear them, Kriehbaum believes that it is feasible, that enlargement would be financed from the budget, and that former recipients are now net contributors, citing Poland as an example of a country that is no longer the same as it was at the time of joining the EU.