Paving the way to EU accession for the Western Balkans

Background

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was asked by the upcoming Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU to produce an exploratory opinion on paving the way to EU accession for the Western Balkans, underlining the benefits of the future enlargement to the region from a holistic point of view.

Key points

The EESC:

• reiterates that facilitating the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union is a strategic priority for the EU. It calls for a credible and merit-based accession process, which would strengthen the EU both politically and socio-economically;
• firmly believes that a gradual, predictable and merit-based approach to acquiring increasing benefits during the EU accession process is the best way to proceed towards EU enlargement;
• as the first EU body to have involved representatives from candidate countries in its daily work, calls upon the other EU bodies and institutions to make the best use of the new accession methodology and to involve representatives of the candidate and potential candidate countries in their work;
• commends the adoption of the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans (RGFWB) and asks that, during its implementation, the input from the social partners and civil society organisations is sought in a timely manner and is duly considered; recommends that the Commission issues clear and transparent guidance on how to apply the conditionality package and supports evaluating both the advantages and drawbacks of early market integration without forgetting the required social and labour standards, in line with the European social model;
• emphasises the need to address the social dimension of the green transition to an inclusive and just economy and society and calls for EU programmes and regional structures to be bolstered, with the aim of reaching more young people in the Western Balkans;
• stresses the importance of systematic, meaningful and timely inclusion of the social partners and civil society organisations in the EU accession negotiations and in this context points to the important role of civil society joint consultative committees (JCCs); urges the Commission to address evident attempts to suppress the civic space, and to reflect these issues more prominently in the enlargement strategy and country reports;
• acknowledges that, for the enlargement to be successful, in parallel to preparing the candidates for accession, the EU needs to reform and be ready to include more members. The EU institutions need to provide reliable information on the expected impact of enlargement for citizens, both in the EU and in the candidate countries.