Germany calls on EU to deliver on enlargement promises to Western Balkans

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday called on the EU to deliver on its enlargement promises to the Western Balkans countries.

Celebrating Europe Day, Scholz gave a speech at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

Scholz called for EU enlargement and reforms in the EU decision-making process.

“A geopolitical Europe must keep its promises to its neighbors,” he said.

Scholz underlined that “honesty means that an enlarged EU needs to be a reformed EU.”

Scholz expressed support for institutional reforms and changes in the EU’s decision-making process, including the abolition of the unanimity vote requirement for EU member states to adopt foreign policy decisions and taxation rules.

He explained that it is not unanimity that creates democratic legitimacy but the efforts “for compromises which are also in the interests of minorities, that reflects our understanding of liberal democracy.”

He also proposed to strengthen the mandate of the European Commission and allow the EU executive body to launch infringement procedures if a member state breaches “basic values such as freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and guarantees of human rights.”

Scholz’s proposals refer to the long-standing rule of law debate in which Poland and Hungary have blocked several foreign policy and tax reform decisions in response to the bloc’s criticism that they are breaching the EU's democratic standards.