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European Council president Antonio Costa has announced that he will join Euronews’ EU Enlargement Summit on 4 November, alongside the leaders of the accession countries for a unique European political event in Brussels.
The summit will, for the first time, bring together the leaders of both the EU and accession countries in a unique dialogue on Europe’s enlargement process towards the East, at a crucial moment for the European Union and the candidate states, from Ukraine and Moldova to the Western Balkans.
Showcasing the new momentum for Europe’s strategic enlargement, Euronews’ summit will bring to the stage European Council president Antonio Costa and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos together with the presidents of Moldova and Serbia, Maia Sandu and Aleksandar Vučić, as well as three prime ministers: Albania’s Edi Rama, Montenegro’s Milojko Spajić and North Macedonia’s Hristijan Mickoski.
President Costa will deliver a keynote speech to the participating leaders and to the whole of Europe, just as the European Commission will present, on the same day, its EU enlargement strategy and the yearly assessment of the efforts made by the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia on their individual paths towards EU accession.
The Western Balkans leaders and the president of Moldova will equally present and debate their countries’ strategies towards EU integration, prospects and challenges in the context of their nations’ European hopes and dreams at a defining moment for Europe’s future.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has brought a new urgency and impetus to the EU Enlargement process, both for the European Union and the accession countries.
The summit will explore concretely the prospects and challenges for the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe on the one hand and the European Union on the other, analysing the common benefits for Europe’s democracy, economy and strategic autonomy.
Euronews’ summit takes place just a month after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen underlined in her annual State Of The Union speech that “a larger and stronger Union” with Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans is “a security guarantee for all of us.”
Earlier this month, she built additional momentum for the accession process and, implicitly, for Euronews’ EU enlargement summit by travelling to each of the Western Balkan states to reiterate the EU’s support for the region’s accession to the 27-member bloc.
In parallel, EU leaders have consistently supported Sandu’s European integration efforts amid sustained Russian threats and disinformation campaigns in Moldova.
