Informal European Summit

EU heads of state and government got together in Granada, Spain, to outline the future of the EU bloc.

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Sorin Iordan, 09.10.2023, 14:50

The EUs informal summit hosted in Granada by the Spanish presidency of the EU Council, ended with a limited joint statement, which made no reference to the thorny issues. The statement should have included elements regarding migration, EU enlargement, national and cyber security and the EUs industrial autonomy from third countries such as China, Russia and the United States. The main divergences arose, as expected, in relation to the common European migration pact. Hungary and Poland vehemently opposed its inclusion in the final statement, and the press reports that the two leaders from Budapest and Warsaw, respectively, used very harsh words. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Hungary feels violated and attacked when EU member states impose a threshold on migration, while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said such a measure was a dictate from Brussels which he will never accept.

However, the EU law says that in order to take a decision on the pact for migration, unanimity is not necessary, but only a majority of votes, so, in the end, there will be such a pact in the EU, despite the staunch opposition of Hungary and Poland. Another important topic, which stirred the waters at the Granada summit, was the expansion of the community bloc. The 2030 deadline for taking in new EU members, launched by the High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has been rejected. European leaders, including Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, deem it unrealistic. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, said that the candidate states will enter the Union depending on effort and merit, a statement reinforced by the head of the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyen said that EU enlargement must remain a process based on individual merit. Therefore, the final declaration only mentions that the EU will have more than 30 members.

Among the candidate states are the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, the countries of the Western Balkans and even Turkey. A decision that could generate effects is expected to be taken at the European summit scheduled for December. The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, voiced optimism in this respect, especially after the European Parliament passed a resolution demanding the start of accession negotiations with Chisinau by the end of the year. Until then, however, the Granada Declaration maintains the commitment of the 27 heads of state and government from the EU bloc to a strong, dynamic, competitive and cohesive Europe in a changing world. (EE)