EU must move rapidly ahead with enlargement - Karins

RIGA - The European Union (EU) must move rapidly ahead with the enlargement process, Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity) said Tuesday at a meeting of the EU General Affairs Council.

As LETA was told at the Foreign Ministry, the meeting of the General Affairs Council featured a discussion on the bloc's future in the context of enlargement, highlighting the need to move rapidly ahead with the enlargement process.

The General Affairs Council looked at the specific ways to organize work for adapting the EU so that it would be ready to receive new member states. The Latvian foreign minister underlined that the most important thing was, with a view to an enlarged EU, to agree on how to adapt EU policies and build the EU’s future budget. At the same time, Karins underlined that regular and direct communication with the public on EU enlargement and the steps being taken to prepare the EU for future enlargements should not be forgotten.

"The EU must also be able to act and respond in the future to the consequences of actions by any third country and the changing geopolitical environment, which is particularly important at this moment in the context of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine," Karins said at the meeting. 

At the meeting, the EU foreign ministers also discussed the draft conclusions of the European Council of March 21 and 22 and agreed on recommendations formulated during the European Semester process. The representatives of the member states exchanged views on the electoral process in EU candidate countries and on the future of the EU Single Market. The ministers were also informed about the course of the rule of law reform in Poland.