BELGRADE – The European Union should be reformed in order to become more efficient, and we have to speed up the EU accession process of the Western Balkans, stressed René Troccaz, Special Envoy for the Western Balkans of the French Republic, speaking at the Belgrade Security Conference 2024. Troccaz, who participated at the panel discussion titled “Europe: Surviving (and Thriving?) in the Geopolitical Age”, claimed that the countries of the region have been waiting so long to become part of the EU, for almost twenty years.
“The merit-based approach is valid to all EU candidate countries – from Ukraine to Serbia this is because we need coherence among our European club”, René Troccaz underlined.
Commenting on the future of Europe, Troccaz noted that “Europe will survive and Europe has to live and get stronger, we know what is ahead of us and how to face the challenges”.
According to Troccaz, the European Political Community, which was initiated by France, is an important forum where both the EU and non-EU member states discuss common challenges.
“The EPC is not the EU, it is not the institution, it is a family meeting, sometimes the leaders agree, sometimes they do not, but at least they discuss, and we see what we have in common. We have to be coherent and collectively address the challenges”, René Troccaz remarked.
Referring to the current challenges and threats that Europe is faced up with, Rob Dixon, Director of the International Affairs of National Security Secretariat of United Kingdom, noted that “a great geopolitical competition is back”.
“We have an ambition to reset and reconnect, not only with the EU, but wider… We need to find the ways in which we can engage both with the EU and bilaterally, with the member states”, Rob Dixon underlined.
Dixon stressed that the UK is not about to re-join the EU, or the Common Market, but there are a lot of things that can be done together, such as the control of the irregular migration.
“We have to be pragmatic, we have to work together if we are to support Ukraine, and we should work with the new US administration”, Dixon remarked.
According to Vessela Tcherneva, Deputy Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, “we are at the point of history where everything is possible”.
“I believe that Europe can mobilise in the face of the threats… The most immediate challenge is the situation in Ukraine, we should define how we will act in the coming weeks. Also, the EU is preparing for the possible additional tariffs from the USA… The economic challenges are very serious”, Vessela Tcherneva said.
Speaking about the new momentum for the EU enlargement, Tcherneva remarked that it is, above all, the merit-based process, not just a geopolitical one, and that the candidate countries should not get the idea that “they simply would get on the train towards the EU membership”, without implementing the reforms.