EU should be ready to accept 10 new countries: Official
Evaluating the enlargement process of the European Union (EU), Joseph Borrell argued that the membership process should be accelerated. Borrell emphasized that the EU should be ready to add 10 new members.
The European Union (EU) should be ready to accept 10 new members as part of the enlargement process, Joseph Borrell, the European Union's representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said after a meeting with foreign ministers in Toledo, Spain.
"We should also be ready for the addition of 10 new members to the European Union. Setting a 'time target' could be useful to mobilize our energies and those of the candidate countries," Borrell said.
Brussels was preparing for a possible enlargement before 2030. In the news, it was claimed that Charles Michel, President of the European Council, would propose adding new members to the union in the near future, The Financial Times newspaper, which published a news article on the subject in the previous days, suggested.
7 COUNTRIES IN CANDIDATE STATUS
The countries of the European Union are expected to discuss a possible enlargement plan at a summit in Granada in October. In recent years, Ukraine, Moldova, and Albania have been granted "candidate country" status by the EU.
The other candidate countries are Türkiye, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Kosovo are waiting to be recognized as candidate countries.
Having applied for full membership in 1987, Türkiye was granted candidate country status at the Helsinki Summit in 1999 and membership negotiations officially started in 2005. However, negotiations between Ankara and Brussels stalled after the 2010s and have de facto ended in the last few years.
Source: Anadolu Agency
