António Costa: Moldova and Ukraine completed screening process at record speed

Moldova and Ukraine have made impressive progress on their EU accession path, European Council President António Costa said at the Euronews EU Enlargement Summit, after the European Commission published the annual Enlargement package on 4 November.

He said that since the first days of his mandate as President of Council, he had made enlargement one of his top priorities, as “the current geopolitical context makes this priority all the more urgent and necessary for the European Union”.

He also drew particular attention to the “striking sentence” in the enlargement report: “This is the first Commission mandate since 2010-2014 where enlargement is a realistic possibility.”

He added that Ukraine, Moldova, and the Western Balkan countries “belong in the European Union”.

“Ukraine – a country at war – and Moldova facing repeated attacks on its democracy and sovereignty, have, in the course of one year, completed the screening of the acquis by the Commission – at record speed.”

António Costa insisted that enlargement is not “an abstract vision or a wish list” but a transformational process: “It is essential to consolidate democracy and the rule of law, at the same time these are two crucial prerequisites for a successful enlargement. We must be more demanding on the standards, and more efficient and pragmatic on the process.”

He also said that the “accession partners must decide if they have that determination to move forward with their European Union transformation or if they prefer to remain trapped by painful historical legacies”.

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