EU must prove it is capable and willing to take in new members, leaders say

Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron and Antonio Costa talk to Serbia’s Aleksandar Vičić at the summit in Tivat, Montenegro. Photograph: MICHAILIDIS/BETAPHOTO/SIPA/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron and Antonio Costa talk to Serbia’s Aleksandar Vičić at the summit in Tivat, Montenegro. Photograph: MICHAILIDIS/BETAPHOTO/SIPA/Shutterstock EU must prove it is capable and willing to take in new members, leaders say Von der Leyen tells Balkans summit that bloc needs to make enlargement process ‘faster and more credible’ The EU must prove its willingness and ability to take in new members and speed up its enlargement process, leaders of the bloc have said, as they gathered with their counterparts from six western Balkan countries that hope to join soon. “The European Union has to show that it is capable of enlarging and willing to enlarge, and we want to discuss that here,” Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told reporters on Friday at the summit in Tivat, a costal town in Montenegro. EU summit with western Balkan leaders to reaffirm membership prospects Read more “There are a whole range of questions we must answer together, but above all it must be clear that this part of Europe belongs within the EU’s future,” Merz said. The fact no new members had joined for 13 years showed “shortcomings” in the bloc, he added. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who attended the summit alongside Merz, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said the EU needed “to make the enlargement process faster and more credible”. Montenegro’s president, Jakov Milatović, whose country, with a population of just 630,000, is the most advanced in its EU membership quest and hopes to join the bloc by 2028, welcomed the leaders. View image in fullscreen Jakov Milatović, centre left, welcomes Gitanas Nausėda, Mette Frederiksen and Ursula von der Leyen. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images Enlargement has risen up the agenda because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with Kyiv keen to join the bloc to anchor itself in Europe’s mainstream and EU officials declaring the union must expand to reduce the influence of nearby foreign powers. Since the Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Ukraine and Moldova have joined the queue of countries seeking accession, alongside the Balkan hopefuls of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, North Macedonia , Montenegro and Serbia. However, the process of joining is long and complex, involving years of negotiations and legal changes plus the approval of all 27 EU members at every step. Even Montenegro, which submitted its application 18 years ago, faces obstacles and many officials see its 2028 goal as ambitious. France and Germany seized on the Tivat meeting to push the idea of “gradual integration” into the bloc. “Together with Germany, we have proposed a strengthened gradual integration process,” Macron told reporters at the summit. Macron sai