EU must prove it is capable and willing to take in new members, leaders say

The EU must prove its willingness and ability to take in new members and speed up its enlargement process, leaders of the bloc have said, as they gathered with their counterparts from six western Balkan countries that hope to join soon. “The European Union has to show that it is capable of enlarging and willing to enlarge, and we want to discuss that here,” Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told reporters on Friday at the summit in Tivat, a costal town in Montenegro. “There are a whole range of questions we must answer together, but above all it must be clear that this part of Europe belongs within the EU’s future,” Merz said. The fact no new members had joined for 13 years showed “shortcomings” in the bloc, he added. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who attended the summit alongside Merz, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said the EU needed “to make the enlargement process faster and more credible”. Montenegro’s president, Jakov Milatović, whose country, with a population of just 630,000, is the most advanced in its EU membership quest and hopes to join the bloc by 2028, welcomed the leaders. Jakov Milatović, centre left, welcomes Gitanas Nausėda, Mette Frederiksen and Ursula von der Leyen. …