At its May plenary, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) discussed lessons learned from the 2004 EU enlargement. The current geopolitical and security situations make further enlargement an even more urgent task for Europe. 

At its plenary debate dedicated to the great 2004 enlargement, the EESC welcomed speakers who played a significant role in the negotiation process, including former Polish Secretary of State in charge of EU accession Jarosław Pietras, Secretary General of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies László Andor from Hungary, and former European Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Füle from Czechia. 

In the discussion, participants stressed that the EU – which only recently regained its interest in further enlargement – needed to provide a clear roadmap to accession for the candidate countries. Leave them knocking on the door for too long, and the enlargement process could lose its credibility. 

EESC President Oliver Röpke said: ‘The 20-year anniversary marks not only a significant milestone, but also the ongoing success of the EU enlargement process, with more countries aspiring to join'. 

Mr Pietras said: ‘Enlargement is a two-way transformation process, bringing benefits not only to the candidate countries but also to the EU Member States’. 

Mr Füle, who now chairs the European Policy Centre Task Force on EU enlargement, stressed that ‘we need to prepare both candidate countries and the EU Member States for the new wave of enlargements’. 

Speaking about the driving force of the 2004 enlargement, Dr Tinatin Akhvlediani, Research Fellow in the EU Foreign Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies, highlighted the economic aspects of enlargement, given the fact that candidate countries at the time had been experiencing poor financial situations. However, the main motivation for future enlargement now is security. 

According to Mr Andor, rule of law represented one of the deficiencies of the 2004 enlargement, with the EU failing to create the right tools to address it. This led to the recent creation of the rule of law conditionality. 

In September, the EESC will hold a Civil Society Enlargement Summit, inviting all the enlargement candidate members to participate in its plenary session for the first time ever. (mt)