European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said on Monday that the European Union would seek to admit only new member states that strengthen its security, the EFE news agency reports.
“Security is becoming increasingly important for the EU, as well as in the enlargement process. We cannot afford to admit new member states that do not strengthen our security,” Marta Kos told reporters upon arriving at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Agerpres reports.
The meeting will address, among other issues, EU enlargement to include new member states and how candidate countries and potential candidates can effectively contribute to strengthening the bloc’s security and defense.
In this regard, Marta Kos stressed that “strategic alignment is becoming increasingly important.”
“We are making it clear that only those candidates that are strategically aligned with us will be able to join us,” she said.
The European Commissioner explained that this alignment also concerns sanctions and initiatives related to energy and infrastructure, in an apparent reference to Serbia, which refuses to join EU sanctions against Russia.
“We must ensure that, when we admit new members, they make us stronger, not weaker,” the European Commission representative said.
She further stressed that respect for the rule of law and European values is essential, emphasizing that compliance with international law “is of particular importance in the Western Balkans, (…) where nationalist tendencies are re-emerging.”
Last month, Marta Kos canceled a visit to Serbia, accusing the country of “glorifying” former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladić, who died in detention in The Hague at the end of August.
She also criticized an initiative to revise the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, describing it as “contrary to Kosovo’s fundamental obligations toward the EU, and this is unacceptable.” She added that “changing the rules while judicial proceedings are underway goes against every principle of the rule of law.”
Under international pressure, Kosovo’s government in Pristina agreed in 2015 to establish the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, an international court based in The Hague and staffed by international judges and prosecutors.
The court tries cases involving war crimes allegedly committed by former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during and immediately after the 1998–1999 conflict. The conflict eventually led Kosovo to unilaterally declare independence from Serbia in 2008.