The European Union must prepare for enlargement and candidate countries must meet the necessary criteria, European Council President Charles Michel said in Granada, Spain, on Friday ahead of an informal summit organized by Spain’s EU Council presidency. reports the Hina agency, which is quoted by Agerpres.

Michel said that the summit in Granada is very important because the meeting will start a discussion about the strategic agenda of the European Union, about its priorities and common policies and how these policies and initiatives will be paid for in the future.

Montenegro and Serbia have been negotiating to join the EU for several years, while North Macedonia and Albania officially opened it only last year.

Bosnia gained candidate status in December 2022, six months after Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, and these decisions were accelerated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Kosovo and Georgia have the status of a potential candidate. Negotiations between Turkey and the European Union have been deadlocked since 2018, and there are no signs that they will resume anytime soon.

“Open and positive speech about the EU enlargement process”

“Enlargement means that candidate countries have to implement reforms, they know what they have to do. And the European Union must prepare,” said Charles Michel.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday that the final statement of the Granada summit would contain “open and positive language regarding the EU enlargement process”. “Since Croatia was the last to join the European Union and has been there for 10 years, we are helping Southeast Europe, as well as Ukraine and Moldova with our experience,” Plenkovic said.

Both parties should do their homework, emphasized Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. “If countries meet the criteria, it would be wrong to tell them that we are not ready,” Kallas added.

In turn, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who often had sharp disputes with the European Commission, accused EU leaders of showing selfishness in relations with Georgia. “When Ukraine and (the Republic of) Moldova received candidate status, Georgia was told that it had prospects but was not yet ready to become a candidate country,” Orban said.

“It’s not fair to you. And we need you,” said the Hungarian leader in his address to Georgia.

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