Statement | Is the European Union at Risk of Losing the Enlargement Battle as well?

The outcome of the recent elections in Georgia and the referendum in Moldova, related to the necessary steps to proceed on the path to EU membership (which passed with a very slim majority), is a wake-up call that the European Union cannot ignore.

Moscow's pressure on both countries is strong and unscrupulous: manipulation of public opinion through disinformation campaigns, decisive support for anti-EU forces, and consequent electoral fraud, strongly denounced in Georgia. All of this occurs while the hesitations of the EU and the US in supporting Ukraine, attacked by Putin, raise fears of being abandoned by Western powers in case of unrest and conflicts stirred up by the Russian regime.

But it is above all the weakness of the European Union, unable to transform itself into a federation — and thus unable to become a true model of supranational democracy alternative to autocracies and to represent a balancing factor on the global stage — that constitutes the real crucial point in this framework. Divided internally and paralyzed by diverging national visions, the Union, as highlighted in the Draghi Report, is in crisis regarding its economic, technological, and industrial future, lacks political strength on the international stage, and does not have the tools to ensure its own security. As a result, it remains a weak partner, incapable of helping that significant part of the public opinion in Georgia and Moldova that feels European, vigorously expresses its will, but risks being sidelined by Putin's counter-offensive.

The path for transforming the European Union into a federal system has been outlined by the Treaties reform proposal approved by the European Parliament on November 23, 2023, which is currently stalled in the European Council, where only 14 out of 27 Member States would be needed to initiate a Convention and thus a full democratic debate on the political future of the EU. But without such a reform of the Union, full enlargement is put in danger.

The weakness and impotence of European national governments, which keep the Union in this state of paralysis, come at a dramatic cost to European citizens and to all those who feel European and would like to become so in reality.

Let this be a warning to the proponents of the European status quo in governments, national politics, and within European institutions themselves: upon them weighs the political and moral responsibility for betraying the hope and the project for which Europe was born.

Budapest, 16 November 2024