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The European Union faces a “very divisive” period if it pursues sweeping reforms to adapt to Ukraine and other new members joining the bloc in the future, according to a former top EU official.
Former European Commission president José Manuel Barroso told the Financial Times that while he fully supports Kyiv’s accession bid, discussions about “fundamental changes of the institutional balance . . . can be very divisive in the European Union”.
EU countries have started to present proposals on how the union should reform before welcoming new members. No membership is imminent, with European Council president Charles Michel recently touting 2030 as a possible next accession date, a target Barroso referred to as “aspirational”.
In addition to Ukraine and Moldova which were granted candidate status last year, Turkey, Georgia and six countries in the western Balkans are at various stages in the EU accession process. The EU commission will report on all 10 countries’ progress in October.
One of the concerns is that as the number of members increases, the bloc’s decision-making process grinds to a halt in areas such as foreign policy or budgetary matters where unanimity is required.
Earlier this week, a French and German-commissioned report recommended majority voting for most EU decisions and four circles of EU integration allowing countries like Switzerland and potentially the UK and Turkey looser forms of co-operation.
But Barroso, a former Portuguese premier, pushed back against such plans, noting that unanimity has worked so far. “Look at the very difficult decisions that we took now, including sanctions against Russia, or issues relating to defence. Weren’t they possible, even with unanimity?”
Rather than enacting “fundamental institutional engineering” to adapt its processes, the EU “should focus on completing the banking union, completing the capital markets Union, completing the internal market, and also making progress on geopolitical issues”, Barroso added.
He cautioned against more far-reaching changes that would require treaty change, given the experience of the failed Constitutional Treaty rejected by referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005.
“Some governments have said if there is a change of treaty they will hold a referendum, and we know from experience that a referendum is a risky business,” he said. The probability for voters to reject a new treaty was “very high”.
The remarks contrast with those made by Germany’s Europe minister Anna Lührmann — who this week said that “EU enlargement and EU reform must go hand in hand” and backed reforms on majority voting — and Emmanuel Macron, who also supports voting reforms.
With European elections taking place in June, when far-right parties are expected to pick up votes, concerns are increasing that some capitals will block legislation for political reasons.
Barroso, who led the EU commission from 2004 to 2014, also defended Europe’s response to Russia’s invasion of the Crimea, when he said there was little support for an EU active in defence policy.
“Should we in that moment be more determined? Yes, but the conditions were not mature. It’s very easy to criticise the governments or even ourselves but there is a time for everything,” he said.
Barroso was criticised for joining Goldman Sachs as a non-executive chair in 2016, including by then-French president François Hollande. Defending his decision as “perfectly legitimate”, he said his critics had been “played by the far-right”.
“Je ne regrette rien, to quote Édith Piaf,” he said. “What I regret is that some people from the mainstream European landscape did not understand that it was an attack . . . it was not my decision, it was [their] reaction that was the problem.”
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