Sept. 13 (UPI) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed Wednesday an ambitious expansion plan to grow the European Union into a bloc of at least 30 countries and a stronger commitment to admitting Ukraine.
The EU needed a “completed Union” to make good on the progress made in forming health, defense, and geopolitical unions across the bloc, said von der Leyen in her 2023 State of the Union speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“We need to move past old, binary debates about enlargement. This is not a question of deepening integration or widening the Union. We can and we must do both to give us the geopolitical weight and the capacity to act.
“I believe that the next enlargement must also be a catalyst for progress.”
She said pragmatic solutions to overcoming past difficulties confronting expansion efforts showed adapting the union for enlargement could be expedited.
“That means answering practical questions about how a Union of over 30 countries will work in practice and in particular about our capacity to act,” she said referring to the complexities involved in achieving consensus as the membership grows ever larger.
“The good news is that with every enlargement those who said it would make us less efficient were proven wrong.”
Von der Leyen pointed to EU-wide agreements on the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and including Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia in its natural gas joint procurement platform to secure energy supplies at affordable prices.
Renewing her promise to be at Ukraine’s side “every step of the way for as long as it takes” von der Leyen pledged a further $53.7 billion over four years for investment and reforms, in addition to $12.9 billion this year to pay wages and pensions, to ready the country for EU accession.
“This will help build Ukraine’s future to rebuild a modern and prosperous country. And that future is clear to see. This House has said it out loud: The future of Ukraine is in our Union.”
Von der Leyen made similar overtures to other candidates for EU membership saying the futures of the Western Balkans and Moldova also lay in the EU, but stopped short of including Georgia stressing only that she understood how EU-aligned many of its people were.
