MEPs discuss limits to EU expansion

MEPs are set to adopt a report criticising the limitless expansion of the EU.

Centre right MEP Elmar Brok presented his report on the future EU enlargement strategy to parliament on Wednesday.

The document urges EU member states to consider “absorption capacity” before agreeing to take on new countries.

Brok calls on the commission to meet with the "legitimate concerns of the European public regarding European enlargement and integration."

"The stalemate in the ratification of the European constitution is preventing the EU from enhancing its absorption capacity", the Brok report insists.

A parliamentary response to a commission enlargement strategy paper from last year, the Brok report also asks the EU executive to formally set out the principles of “absorption capacity.”

Commenting ahead of Thursday’s parliamentary vote on the paper, Green MEPs Angelika Beer and Joost Lagendijk attacked the “dangerous double speak” of Brok’s conclusions. 

"While the enlargement report does not rule out the prospect of membership for the Balkans, rapporteur Elmar Brok has publicly questioned the 'absorption capacity' of the EU and suggested alternatives to full membership,” Beer and Lagendijk said in a statement.

“This sends a dangerous signal at a time of flux in the region - with ongoing discussions on the future status of Kosovo, Montenegro and the Bosnian constitution.”

But the green members of the foreign affairs committee were content Wednesday’s report did not call for enlargement to be halted.

“Instead the report calls on the commission to propose close multilateral relations with the EU for those European countries, which currently do not have the prospect of membership, such as Moldova or Ukraine.”

“The Greens/EFA group is calling on all groups to fully support the commitments in the report and not to undermine consensus on the future of enlargement."

MEPs vote on the issue on Thursday.

Rehn report

Expansion questions occupied the Strasbourg agenda throughout much of the afternoon – with the EU enlargement commissioner also presenting his report on last week’s Salzburg informal. 

The meeting in Austria focussed on the European future for the western Balkans.

Olli Rehn called on MEPs to back plans that remove obstacles to trade, production and investment in the western Balkans.

“The commission pursues the creation of a regional free trade agreement, that would replace the existing patchwork of 31 bilateral free trade agreements,” he explained.

The Finnish commissioner again referred to plans for increasing mobility in the Balkans by increasing scholarships and visa-facilitation schemes.

“I hope the member states will move them forward quickly through the Council, so that we can start negotiations on visa facilitation and re-admission agreements,” he said.

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