A Czech warning in Skopje highlights a growing tension over who should carry the burden of meeting promises during the EU enlargement process.
Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said during a meeting with North Macedonian diplomats in Skopje that countries seeking EU membership must consistently defend their national interests on their path to joining the European Union.
He stressed that carrying out reforms and fulfilling commitments are essential conditions for European integration. At the same time, he said, the European Union must also honor the agreements reached and refrain from adding new political requirements during the negotiations.
From the Czech perspective, the accession process must be reliable on both sides. Candidate countries must implement reforms and fulfill their commitments. But the European Union must also fulfill its commitments. Candidate countries must be confident that the agreed conditions will not be supplemented with new political requirements along the way.
– Petr Macinka
Agreements on national interests must be reached before joining the EU
Petr Macinka called on candidate countries to demand that the EU fulfill its commitments. He noted that after joining the Union, it will be more difficult to return to fundamental issues and seek a revision of important decisions.
Therefore, matters concerning fundamental national interests must be agreed upon before accession negotiations are concluded. In the Czech foreign minister’s view, this approach enables candidate countries to protect their positions more clearly in the future.
EU enlargement without excessive centralization
The head of Czech diplomacy also stressed that EU enlargement should not become a mechanism for strengthening centralization or limiting the role of individual member states.
Enlargement should make Europe stronger. However, it must not become a pretext for further centralizing the Union or weakening its member states… We believe that the European Union can become larger without becoming more centralized. And perhaps it is precisely the new member states that can bring to the European debate what we need today: greater sensitivity to national sovereignty, democratic accountability, and legitimate differences among European countries.
– Petr Macinka
He added that joining the EU does not mean a country must abandon its own vision of the future of the union. The Czech Republic supports further EU enlargement and opposes turning it into a closed club.