Down one country with the departure of Britain, the European Union’s main goal is to secure to future of the union. Among the most important tasks for the EU are the requirement of the hard work for building a new economic relationship between the bloc and its ex-member, and enlargements of the bloc by including more members.
The European Union has already linked any access to its market for British products directly to the access that EU boats will be given to UK waters, the bloc’s chief negotiator said on February 3. EU negotiator Michel Barnier underscored the difficulties of the trade negotiations with Britain ahead for the rest of the year when he highlighted the small but emblematic fisheries industry, which was a key issue in the protracted Brexit talks in the UK too.
Barnier told France Inter radio that “there will be no trade deal with the British if there is no reciprocal access deal for our fishermen”. “We will negotiate access to the British territorial waters for European fishermen at the same time that we negotiate access to European markets for British fisheries products. I hope I make myself clear.”
Overall, the EU is willing to grant the UK the fullest possible access to its lucrative market of some 450 million consumers but only if Britain abides by EU standards on such things state aid, social legislation or environmental protections.
British Prime Minister Boris Jonhnon has already indicated he does not want to make a binding commitment to remain in line with EU law, saying it was an essential principle in the move to walk away from the Union.
The official break-up came last Friday and Johnson has said he wants a trade and cooperation deal by the end of the year, a time frame which the EU has called unrealistic.
As for expansion, EU’s executive has proposed a new system for adding members in a move made all the more urgent by French objections to open enlargement talks with two Western Balkan nations.
The European Commission hopes the streamlined rules will avoid further delaying the start of accession negotiations when aspiring members to what is now the 27-country bloc have met the conditions for such talks.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on February 5 that the proposal was a “good message” to North Macedonia and Albania, who were both desperately disappointed when their hopes for the swift commencement of accession negotiations were rebuffed in October. And perhaps crucially, France acknowledged that the proposal was good, “a significant change, a big step in the right direction.”
“This is a major element that allows positions to move — not only France’s position,” said a top official at the French presidency, who asked not to be identified in accordance with Elysee customary practices.
The EU is hoping that a breakthrough for Albania and North Macedonia can be found in March. The bloc also has a major Western Balkans summit planned for May.
There are worries that if the EU doesn’t open its arms, then several countries in the strategically important Balkan region could pivot instead to Russia and China. For a bloc that’s just lost the diplomatic and geopolitical clout of Britain, that could be a hard pill to swallow.
“EU enlargement is a WIN-WIN situation,” von der Leyen said in a tweet.
Enlargement is especially contentious in some capitals in the EU over such issues as corruption and the rule of law.
North Macedonia and Albania were left aghast when their hopes of starting accession talks late last year were dashed, with France insistent that the enlargement process was revamped first. Both aspirants voiced their initial satisfaction at the developments.
“This renewed approach will result in a double victory in the coming weeks: opening negotiations together in an advanced process,” North Macedonia Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov said in a written statement.
And Albania’s acting Foreign Minister Gent Cakaj said the expectation is that membership negotiations would commence this year and that the country would continue its “reforms and the fundamental transformation in line with the new methodology.”
He added that the EU has its sights on the “stability, development and democratisation of the Western Balkans in general.”
The EU hasn’t added a member state since Croatia joined in 2013. It started out with six nations in 1958 and lost its first member state when Britain pulled out last weekend.
Over the past dozen years, as first the financial and then the migration crisis hit the continent, the appetite for taking in new, poorer nations has dwindled.
(Culled from AP reports)