{"id":289904,"date":"2024-01-05T15:08:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T14:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/01\/05\/cese-membri-onorari-allargamento-ue-call\/"},"modified":"2024-01-10T16:07:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T15:07:39","slug":"civil-society-from-eu-candidate-countries-soon-to-participate-in-eesc-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/01\/05\/civil-society-from-eu-candidate-countries-soon-to-participate-in-eesc-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil society from EU candidate countries soon to participate in EESC works"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013\u00a0A crucial new year begins for EU enlargement, which,
\nafter the decisions of the last European Council in December 2023,
\nis about to take on somewhat more defined contours thanks to the
\nfirst EU institution that will concretely open its doors to new
\ncandidates for EU membership. The European Economic and Social
\nCommittee (EESC) has issued an invitation to civil society in the
\nnine countries on this path to apply to become “Enlargement
\nCandidate Members”<\/strong> and contribute to the Committee’s
\nconsultative work in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Cese<\/a>
The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Oliver R\u00f6pke, and the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola (August 31, 2023)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Geopolitics has re-emerged as an existential issue in the political
\nagenda; the EU must live up to the task ahead: the time has come for
\nits geopolitical awakening” is the exhortation of the president of the
\nEESC, Oliver R\u00f6pke<\/strong>, outlining the developments of what last year
\nwas anticipated as the “Honorary Members of Enlargement Initiative”.
\nThe idea is to include new honorary members from civil society
\nfor each candidate country in the process of drafting EESC<\/strong>
\nopinions: from energy to labor and social rights, from digital and
\ngreen transition to industrial policy, sustainable development and
\nthe single market. The nine EU candidate countries<\/strong>\u2014Albania,
\nBosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova,
\nMontenegro, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine\u2014would be involved, while
\nKosovo<\/strong> (which applied for membership in December 2022) would
\nnot be included for now. Speaking to Eunews<\/em>, President R\u00f6pke did
\nnot rule out “closer cooperation” with Pristina, despite the fact that
\nfor the initiative “we have decided to stick to the Council’s decisions
\non candidate status.”<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Civil society organizations from the nine candidate countries can
\napply until January 25<\/strong> (here is the link<\/a>). In the selection process,
\nthe\u00a0level of participation in national civil and social dialogue and
\ninternational networks, adherence to the EU values enshrined in
\nArticle 2 of the Treaty on European Union (human dignity, freedom,
\ndemocracy, equality, rule of law, and respect for human rights,
\nincluding minority rights), gender equality, youth representativity
\nand knowledge of at least one of the official languages of the Union
\nwill be considered. After selecting the pool of 21 members for
\nUkraine and Turkey and 15 for the other countries<\/strong>, participation
\nwill be extended to the entire cycle of opinions (study groups, section
\nmeetings and plenary sessions), with an annual plenary specifically
\non enlargement issues<\/strong>. “This innovative initiative makes the ESSC
\nthe first EU body to progressively integrate representatives of the
\nenlargement countries into its activities,” claimed President R\u00f6pke,
\nexplaining the aim of the pilot project for this year\u00a0(to be reassessed
\nin December).<\/p>\n

Where does EU enlargement stand<\/h3>\n

Of the six Western Balkan countries<\/strong> on the path to EU enlargement,
\nfour have already begun accession negotiations (Albania, North
\nMacedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia), one has received candidate
\nstatus(Bosnia and Herzegovina-), and the last has formally applied for
\nand is awaiting the response of the Twenty-Seven (Kosovo). For\u00a0
\nTirana and Skopje<\/strong> negotiations began in July last year, after waiting
\n8 and 17 years, respectively, while Podgorica and Belgrade<\/strong> have
\nbeen\u00a0at this stage for 11 and 9\u00a0years, respectively. After six years
\nsince applying for EU membership, also Sarajevo<\/strong> became a
\ncandidate to\u00a0join the Union on December 15, 2022,\u00a0and the last
\nEuropean\u00a0Council in December decided that accession negotiations
\ncould be\u00a0opened “once the necessary degree of compliance with the
\nmembership criteria has been achieved.” Pristina is in the most
\ncomplicated position<\/strong> after the formal request was sent at the end of
\nlast year: since its unilateral declaration of independence from
\nBelgrade in 2008, five EU member states\u2014Cyprus, Greece, Romania,
\nSpain, and Slovakia\u2014are still not recognising it as a sovereign state.<\/p>\n

The upheaval in EU enlargement began four days after the Russian
\narmed aggression when, amid the war, Ukraine<\/strong> applied for
\n“immediate” membership in the Union, with the application signed
\non February 28, 2022, by President Zelensky. Demonstrating the
\nirreversibility of a process of rapprochement with Brussels as a
\nclear reaction to the risk of seeing its independence from
\nMoscow<\/strong> erased, three days later (March 3), Georgia <\/strong>and Moldova\u00a0<\/strong>
\nalso decided to take the same path. The European Council of
\nJune 23,\u00a02022, approved the line drawn by the commission in its\u00a0
\n<\/a>recommendation: Kiev and Chi\u0219in\u0103u became the sixth and seventh
\ncandidates for EU membership, while Tbilisi was recognized as having
\na European perspective in the EU enlargement process. Again following
\nthe recommendation contained in the EU Enlargement Package,
\nthe December 14-15, 2023 summit of EU leaders decided to start
\naccession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova<\/strong> and grant
\nGeorgia candidate status<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Negotiations for Turkey<\/strong>‘s accession
\nto the European Union, on the other hand, were launched in 2005,
\nbut have been frozen now since 2018 due to backward steps on
\ndemocracy, rule of law, fundamental rights, and independence of the
\njudiciary. In the chapter on Turkey<\/a> of the latest annual Enlargement
\nPackage presented in October 2022, it was put into writing that
\nit “does not reverse course and continues to move away from the EU
\npositions on the rule of law, increasing tensions over respect for borders
\nin the Eastern Mediterranean.” At the NATO summit in Vilnius at the
\nend of June, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan<\/strong>, tried to
\nforce his hand, menacing that he would bind Sweden’s membership
\nin the Atlantic Alliance to Brussels opening Turkey’s path back to
\nthe EU. The blackmail failed, but the dossier on Ankara was addressed
\nin a specific strategic report to Brussels.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Economic and Social Committee has issued an invitation (until January 25) to the nine countries on this path to apply to become “Enlargement Candidate Members” and contribute to the consultative work in 2024. President Oliver R\u00f6pke: “We are the first EU body to progressively integrate them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5647,"featured_media":277791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25847,25836,26240,26241,26242],"class_list":["post-289904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-eesc-en","tag-eu-enlargement-en","tag-european-economic-and-social-committee-en","tag-members-onoraries-enlargement-en","tag-oliver-ropke-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289904"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291017,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289904\/revisions\/291017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}