The EU should expand significantly but must first undergo fundamental reforms to ensure an enlarged bloc can still function, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday. During an hour-long speech at Charles University in Prague, Scholz outlined his vision for an EU of the future — one that has absorbed up to nine new members at its eastern edge, expanded the visa-free travel zone and overhauled the way which creates key decisions on everything from foreign policy to taxation. Scholz’s pitch, which included mostly ideas he has promoted in the past, comes at a pivotal time for the EU. Russia’s war in Ukraine has just passed the six-month mark and an energy and inflationary crisis is looming, leaving many to worry about the cracks in the EU. In particular, Solz supported EU membership for the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as war-torn Ukraine, neighboring Moldova and neighboring Georgia. He also claimed that EU members Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria have met the criteria for admission to Europe’s Schengen area, which allows for easy, visa-free travel between countries. “But a Union of 30 or even 36 member states will look different to our current Union — the center of Europe is moving east,” the chancellor admitted. “Ukraine is not Luxembourg.” Such an expansion would add potentially tens of millions of people – and fraught political momentum – to the EU’s already byzantine and consensus-based decision-making process. That means, Scholz said, that a reform debate “can’t be ignored.” First, he insisted, the EU must abandon the unanimity requirement for many key decisions, not just on foreign policy and taxes, but also on how countries such as Hungary and Poland are held responsible for potential democratic backsliding. Scholz argued that the European Parliament should also not grow beyond its current size of 751 members — a number set in the EU’s treaties. He rejected the notion of “inflating” the body’s size by simply adding MEPs if a new country join. The EU must also be wary of how the bloc’s executive, the European Commission, would react to the expansion. The Commission currently has 27 Commissioners — equal to the number of EU countries — each overseeing a policy portfolio. Scholz said it would be “Kafesan” to keep adding new policy portfolios every time a new country joins. Instead, he argued, the EU could move towards having two Commissioners overseeing one sector — agriculture or fisheries, for example. Separately, Scholz also supported an idea by French President Emmanuel Macron to create a “European Political Community”, which would exist separately from the EU and be open to both EU candidates and the UK after Brexit. The chancellor argued that the forum could facilitate a “regular exchange at political level … where we as EU leaders and our European partners can discuss once or twice a year the central issues that affect our continent as a whole”.
Ukraine, energy
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Solz’s government has faced repeated criticism for delaying aid to Ukraine — despite the country’s historic decision to send arms to Kyiv. The war has also put a spotlight on Germany’s long-standing dependence on Russian gas, which has driven up energy prices in the country. During his speech, Scholz touched on these issues. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he could “imagine, for example, Germany taking special responsibility for building up Ukrainian artillery and air defense” | Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung via Getty Images On aid to Ukraine, the chancellor said he “could imagine, for example, Germany taking special responsibility for the development of Ukrainian artillery and air defense,” adding that Germany had just signed another arms delivery of 600 million euros for the Ukraine. And he reiterated that diversifying away from fossil fuels offered Europe the opportunity to become a world leader in the technologies needed to achieve climate neutrality. He called for a “genuine internal energy market that supplies Europe with hydropower from the north, wind from the coast and solar power from the south”. And Scholz outlined a vision for a “European hydrogen network connecting producers and consumers”.
Immigration, rule of law
The EU also needs to update its immigration laws, the German leader said, taking a step to expand legal immigration amid a shortage of skilled workers. “We need immigration – right now we are experiencing in our airports, in our hospitals and in many companies that we lack skilled workers in every nook and corner,” he said. But immigration has long plagued EU countries, with the bloc rarely reaching consensus on any part of the issue. Another issue that has similarly puzzled the EU is how to police members who back down on democratic norms, including an independent judiciary, fiscal transparency, a free press and LGBTQ+ rights. Toward the end of his speech, Scholz said he was concerned that “in the middle of Europe illiberal democracy is being talked about as if it were not an oxymoron,” a thinly veiled reference to alleged deficiencies in the rule of law in Hungary and Poland. Solz said the majority wanted the EU to stand up for democratic values, but that the bloc’s rules prevented it from doing so. He cited the EU’s Article 7 clause, a process intended to potentially strip EU voting rights from foreign countries, but which has stalled with Hungary and Poland. “Among the possibilities is the rule of law process under Article 7 — and here we have to move away from blocking possibilities,” the chancellor said, adding that economic pressure could be another tool. “It makes sense to me to tie payments consistently to compliance with rule of law standards,” he said.
