EU expansion should come before institutional reforms

Decisions on EU enlargement should not become “hostage to institutional issues”, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says.

“Given the geopolitical importance of the EU enlargement process, we need to take decisions on EU enlargement first, and then talk about institutional reforms,” he was quoted as saying in a statement released by the presidential press service.

According to Nausėda, the European Commission’s recommendation to open negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on EU membership and to grant the status of EU candidate country to Georgia is an important step.

His comment came after he attended an informal discussion of European leaders in Germany on the EU’s strategic agenda.

“EU enlargement is an opportunity to unite and strengthen the continent – a successful new phase of EU enlargement would lead to the biggest growth of the internal market since 2004,” Nausėda said.

Gitanas Nausėda | AP nuotr.

Georgia and Moldova applied for EU membership after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Addressing the leaders of the European Council, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Cyprus, Austria, and Hungary, the Lithuanian president stressed that support for Ukraine should remain a priority for the EU.

He also said the EU should do more to protect its borders.

“We see that the process of irregular migration can easily be instrumentalised and used as a weapon against EU countries to destabilise the situation. We must prevent this by creating uniform standards for the protection of the EU’s external borders and by increasing the financial resources for the fight against irregular migration and border protection,” the Lithuanian president insisted.

The Berlin meeting of European heads of state is one in a series of roundtable discussions where EU leaders are preparing for decisions on priorities for the new political cycle, to be discussed at the European Council in spring 2024.

On Monday, Nausėda met with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier and discussed regional security and the planned deployment of the German brigade in Lithuania.