Georgian Parliament Speaker: EU enlargement must remain merit-based

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday said the European Union’s enlargement process must remain merit-based, with each candidate country’s achievements and progress assessed fairly, consistently and on the basis of a predictable approach.

In his speech at the first Conference of Speakers of Parliament of EU Candidate Countries in Serbia’s capital city of Belgrade, Papuashvili stressed the importance of maintaining a fair and objective enlargement process.

“I thank the National Assembly of Serbia and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for initiating and convening this inaugural gathering of the speakers of parliaments of the EU candidate countries.

It is very important that the coordination of integration efforts of the EU candidate states extends to national parliaments. While governments negotiate, it is the parliaments that give democratic legitimacy to European integration. On behalf of the Parliament of Georgia, I have several messages to share with my colleagues.

First, the enlargement of the European Union is the main vehicle for Europe’s future strategic viability. The new political and economic reality in the world, global competition, and the evolving distribution of power all require the EU's changed attitude towards enlargement. Maintaining a Fortress Europe for decades, without enlargement, is no longer a viable option. The title of our gathering, ‘Shaping Europe’s Future Together’, captures this momentum well: The candidate countries must be seen as participants of the enlargement process, not its objects. The EU cannot afford any more to see itself as an exclusive club that dispenses or withholds the grace of accession to the candidate countries. To the contrary, now the EU must get serious about its own overused metaphor: “It takes two to tango”.

Second, the enlargement should be a merit-based process. The achievements and merits of each candidate country must be assessed fairly, predictably, and consistently. Conditions must be clear, the progress must be duly recognized, and the goalposts must not be moved for political purposes. But, unfortunately, every now and then, new and unpredictable preconditions are invented by individual EU member states, or more oddly, by Brussels. These unpredictable preconditions artificially delay the progress of the candidate states. It is more than obvious that these preconditions often resemble political blackmail more than constructive conditionality. They stem from the EU's election cycles, domestic political narratives, or from historical and identity-related disputes. No single candidate state can withstand the asymmetric leverage of an existing member state blocking progress on subjective grounds. Therefore, we must help each other in overcoming these undue obstacles.

Third, we must avoid the impression that candidate countries are competitors rather than partners. Such fragmentation weakens us. When we face problems one-by-one, our voice is weaker, our leverage is reduced, and the enlargement becomes easier to delay, politicize, or treat it as an indefinite process. We should avoid the parliamentary format of the candidate countries becoming a forum for ranking, lecturing or importing bilateral disputes. It should be a forum for practical cooperation and joint initiatives. The joint declaration, which we are to adopt, clearly stipulates that we have gathered for unity, not division, and the Georgian parliament fully endorses this message.

And, finally, the best way to address the European Union’s currently weakened geopolitical and economic positions is to step up the game and enlarge strategically critical geopolitical areas – the Balkans and the Black Sea. This is why, EU should see enlargement as an historic opportunity to revitalize itself and regain global leadership, and not as a burden or charity, as often presented by some.

As Georgia’s national motto puts it, strength is in unity. Let us, therefore, use this gathering for the purpose of shaping our European future together”, Papuashvili said in his address.