SPEECH/08/31

Mr Olli Rehn

EU Commissioner for Enlargement

What’s the future for EU enlargement?

AmCham EU Plenary meeting Luncheon keynote speech
22 January 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,

It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon with such a distinguished audience.

The title of my speech today is “What’s the future for EU enlargement?”. The answer is simple: enlargement will remain a vital part of the EU’s external policies, because it is our most powerful foreign policy tool. But we cannot use it in our whole neighbourhood. Our agenda for enlargement is South-Eastern Europe – that is, the Balkans and Turkey, which have the prospect of membership.

We want to ensure our commitments are real and credible. However, where we can use the prospect of membership as an anchor for democratic transformation, difficult reforms and enhancing freedoms, we must use it to the maximum.

The debate about enlargement within the Union is a natural part of the accession process. In Turkey’s case, negotiations were always going to be a long-term effort, one which has to ride out political storms in Ankara, Brussels and other capitals.

The accession process is a marathon, not a sprint. The important thing is to maintain the forward momentum in the process, to keep Turkey motivated to continue its reforms, and to maintain our mutual commitment to Turkish integration into the EU.

In my view, the most valuable part of this process will be the transformation of Turkey into a more open society with rich cultural diversity and a strong commitment to the values shared by all Europeans. The EU accession process has long been an important anchor for the country’s democratic transformation, tested again last year during Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

We need to help the government in Ankara to do its job well in reforming Turkey, by reaffirming the EU’s commitment to our mutual goal of membership.

This year we are hoping to see significant progress on free speech and religious freedom in the country. Recent moves in the country are encouraging, particularly the approval of the law on foundations last week by the Justice Committee of the Turkish Parliament.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’d like to move on to the other side of my portfolio: the Western Balkans. NATO and the EU need to work effectively together in this part of Europe, even more than any other.

People in the Balkans face a stark choice this year: their region could either finally resolve its outstanding problems from the wars of the 1990s, or fall back into instability and extremes of nationalism. The first option would take them forward towards stability, prosperity and European integration. But many commentators believe the second is inevitable.

I disagree with the prophecies of doom. There is certainly a danger of instability, at the moment when Kosovo’s future status is on the point of being resolved. But the repercussions need not be destabilising if the EU gives a decisive and unified steer to ensure a coordinated response.

No other international actor will be so directly affected by the outcome – neither Russia nor the United States – and we are ready to carry our responsibility to support stability and progress in the region. The Western Balkans has made steady if uneven progress over recent years, and the goal of EU membership remains an important motivation to keep reforms on track. Clearly, the region’s future lies in the EU, and most people would rather get there sooner than later.

In fact, all of the countries could make faster progress along the road to Europe. By the end of this year, I hope they will all pass through the gateway towards candidacy for membership, by signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. Albania and Montenegro have already done so, as has the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which could soon demonstrate its readiness to begin accession negotiations if it can maintain sufficient political will and cross-party dialogue to drive through serious reforms.

The EU is now waiting for Bosnia and Herzegovina and for Serbia to meet the remaining conditions to sign the agreement. I want to see both countries take a decisive step forward, not only because it would move them closer to the EU, but primarily for the benefit of their own citizens.

The doomsday prophecies for Bosnia and Herzegovina have so far been proven wrong. The country’s leaders made important progress last year on police reform, with the goal of ensuring the rule of law and separating policing from politics. The prospect of joining the EU should reinforce the commitment of the country’s leaders to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia has a chance to open a new era in its international relations in 2008. Full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is essential to allow the country to turn the page on one of the darkest periods in its history and to seek reconciliation across the region.

Serbia’s institutional capacity gives it great potential to move faster towards the European Union. It has the chance to draw closer to qualifying for candidate status, maybe even during the course of this year. Seldom have citizens had as clear a choice as the Serbs do now, between a nationalist past and a European future.

The EU is ready to welcome the citizens of Serbia into Europe, not just through a contractual relationship with their state, but also individually. This is demonstrated by the Commission’s launch of a dialogue on visa-free travel for Serbs that will start next week.

The future for the Balkans can be far from dark. In the EU, there has never been a stronger political will to support the people of the Western Balkans in opting for European values and living standards. But ultimately people in the region have to exercise their democratic choice to determine their countries’ future course.

The prospect of membership of the EU should be a beacon of light for those in Serbia and Kosovo who are working to re-join the European mainstream. This beacon motivated reformers in Central and Eastern Europe during the difficult days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. I trust it can also work in the most unstable parts of Europe today. That’s why I believe in a bright future for EU enlargement.

Thank you for your attention.