European Parliament President Roberta Metsola urged EU leaders to move quickly on enlargement, competitiveness and the bloc’s next long-term budget during a meeting of the European Council.
Metsola welcomed the opening of the first “cluster” of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova — a stage in the process of joining the EU that groups policy areas for talks — and said enlargement was “no longer a distant promise,” the parliamentary press service informed on Friday.
She said gradual integration steps and closer access to the EU’s Single Market could help bring candidate countries closer to the Union, but “can never become a substitute for full EU membership.”
“We need to deliver. We do not have the luxury of time,” Metsola told leaders.
Budget talks and competitiveness measures
On the next long-term EU budget, Metsola said the Parliament would be “constructive” in negotiations but would also defend its position.
She called for the Parliament to be involved early in the process and for talks to advance on “new own resources” — the EU term for revenue streams that fund the budget.
Metsola said she saw “no reason” why an agreement could not be reached by the end of the year “if we proceed in this spirit.”
On competitiveness, she pointed to recent agreements between Parliament and EU member states on simplifying rules covering artificial intelligence, “midcaps” — medium-sized companies — and defence.
She also highlighted work on proposals including the Market Integration and Supervision package and “EU Inc.”, which the Parliament said are intended to remove barriers in the Single Market and respond to concerns raised by businesses.
Metsola also referred to the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum being in application and said Europe “now has the tools” to address migration.
