European Commissioner Várhelyi: Next EU enlargement could be by 2030, but which candidate country to be invited depends on it
European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi is convinced that the next European Commission will be an Enlargement Commission, but which candidate countries will be invited to membership at the end of its mandate in 2029 depends on the country's fulfilment of all the necessary criteria.
He said this on Tuesday in Luxembourg at a press conference at the end of the first intergovernmental conference, at which negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union were officially launched.
Recalling that the European Council meeting will be held this week on June 27-28, Várhelyi expressed the opinion that it is the EU leaders who must "decide that the next commission should be an enlargement commission, meaning that by the end of the mandate of the next commission there would have to be there will be an enlargement of the European Union."
"The end of the mandate of the next commission is October 31, 2029... When leaders are discussing strategic decisions of this kind, they take a holistic approach and open the door to everybody who will be ready. Because, do not forget that this is not question about the European Union giving the deadlines for when can join, but about the fact that if these countries are ready to join, the European Union will be able to receive them. But the conditions will have to be met. Whether this happens in 2027, when the condition would have been met by the country in question, or later, it is largely depended on the performance of the country," he said.
In turn, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Belgian presidency of the EU Hadja Lahbib said "today there are Moldova and Ukraine, striving to become members of the European Union, which are carrying out the necessary reforms. "It is in our geostrategic interests to have Ukraine, Moldova and, perhaps in the future, Montenegro as full members of the European Union," she said.