The push comes after some EU countries voiced concern about moving too quickly to bring in new members.
BRUSSELS — The European Union must move more quickly to include new members and expand the 27-member club, the bloc’s top diplomat said Monday in a nod to Ukraine, Montenegro and other candidate countries waiting to join.
Enlargement must “remain merit-based but in the current context we need to step up the pace,” Kaja Kallas told an annual conference of EU diplomats in Brussels. “Enlargement is the antidote to Russian imperialism, and a sign that the most ambitious multilateral project in history, the European Union, is here to stay.”
Kallas’ push for faster integration of EU candidate countries lands amid tense discussions between the European Commission, which advocates for speedy enlargement, and national capitals that have backed a more gradual approach.
At a dinner last week attended by the European Commission president’s chief of staff, Bjoern Seibert, EU ambassadors rejected the possibility of allowing in new members with limited privileges.
Kallas’ words offer heavyweight backing to the idea that enlargement isn’t simply a bureaucratic process by which candidates fulfill EU criteria but a geopolitical choice — as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has suggested.
“Enlargement has been described as the union’s most successful foreign policy, extending the area of stability, peace and prosperity,” Kallas said, citing Eurobarometer data showing wide support for expanding the 27-member bloc.
But, she added, “it is up to us to keep telling the enlargement story.”
A senior EU diplomat, granted anonymity to speak freely, said countries would do their best to keep the bloc’s enlargement process on track, despite the differences between the Council and the Commission.
Work is now underway to make the next three presidencies of the Council of the EU focus on bringing in new member countries, with an eye to finishing Ukraine’s negotiations by the end of 2027, even if an accession treaty might take longer to complete.
The prospect of a public debate about Ukraine’s membership is worrying to some EU leaders, who fear it could give ammunition to far-right parties ahead of elections in France, Finland and other countries next year.
“You need to have a political narrative on Ukraine,” the senior EU diplomat said.