Kos at the Munich conference: Enlargement, the most important element of the security guarantee

The European Union can bring candidate countries into the EU, not the US. This was stated by Marta Kos, Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, at the Munich conference on the panel with Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickosk. In her speech, Kos emphasized that today the EU is focused on security and peace at a time when, according to her, it is threatened by external forces.

"Enlargement today is not only influenced by what the US is doing, but by geopolitics, we have a special situation, we have external forces that divide us and want to see us fail. The European Union is becoming more and more important. When my country became a member, we saw it through economic lenses. The EU was created for peace, freedom, security and prosperity. Now we return to security and peace. Enlargement may be the most important element of the security guarantee. There is a reason why countries want to become part of the EU and not the US. There is a tendency from northern Europe and countries that are in the European economic area to return."

According to the commissioner, the EU is working at a faster pace to complete the membership of Albania and Montenegro by 2027, but she emphasized that the political will of the member states is also needed.

"We are working two to three times faster than the EU. We need to differentiate between technical and political issues. For technical issues, we close in 2026-2027 with Montenegro and Albania, for the political part, because no step can be taken without the will of the member states, we need to talk to the member states. We really need to talk to the member states about what we can do. It is the merit-based, technical part, but geopolitics also plays an important role. Some people see a discrepancy between the merit-based process and geopolitics or between values ​​and the economic process. In my view, we can do much more if we take this situation seriously. The EU can bring candidate countries into the EU, not the US." (A2 Televizion)