Two new members, Montenegro and Albania, could join the bloc by 2030, Karoline Edtstadler told Euronews.
The EU should admit Montenegro and Albania as member states by 2030, with the European Commission encouraging other candidates through “gradual enlargement”, Austria’s minister for Europe has told Euronews.
Karoline Edtstadler spoke on the fringes of Forum Alpbach, the annual policy congress in the Tyrol, during which she participated in a panel on expanding the EU.
“I think there will be 29 EU members by 2030, with Montenegro joining in 2028 and Albania in 2030, since I’ve seen first hand … how engaged and ambitious they both are in the process,” Edtstadler told Euronews, after she visited both countries in April.
“We can push against rising nationalism in the candidate countries — especially the Western Balkans — but only if we give incentives, and this should be done through gradual integration,” she said.
Gradual enlargement implies that countries seeking admission would be offered partial benefits of EU membership as they overcome specific conditions, rather than the all-or-nothing approach that rewards only those who fully accede.
“For example, where a cluster of chapters is closed, but full integration remains pending, the EU should allow access on a gradual basis in order to reflect those completed chapters, especially with regard to the single market, e.g. SEPA,” Edtstadler said, referring to an existing EU system that allows unified payments among banks.
“This would give them the feeling that they are already getting there,” she said.
Another measure would be to invite candidate countries to join meetings in Brussels more frequently, which would enable their politicians to inform citizens first-hand about the process, according to Edtstadler.
“I’m fully convinced that this concept of gradual integration will be adopted by the next Commission, because there is no alternative to the accession process,” she said.
Gradual enlargement was also touted by Lithuania’s next European Commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, in an interview with Euronews.
In the interview, Kubilius, who was twice Lithuania’s Prime Minister, stressed the geopolitical case for returning to an early-2000s’ style enlargement philosophy that saw ten new countries join the bloc at once.
“There are even some ideas that, first of all, the country should jump into the single market, then should go with all other chapters: so-called progressive integration or phased integration,” he said.
