Costa backs EU accession negotiations for Ukraine, Western Balkans

Portugal supports the opening of negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said on Monday, adding that progress should also be made in the enlargement process to the Western Balkans.

“If the European Commission believes that a new step should be taken towards opening negotiations with Ukraine, Portugal will accompany the European Commission and support progress in Ukraine’s European integration process,” Costa said during a preparatory debate for the European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday.

He added that one of the main topics at the summit would be EU enlargement, noting that the government’s position “is quite clear”.

According to him, the government understands that “all enlargement processes must be assessed on their merits and by the assessment made by the European Commission”.

However, the prime minister emphasised that “it is not possible to disconnect” the process of Ukraine’s enlargement to the EU from the candidacies of the countries of the Western Balkans, recalling that last week he made an official visit to Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro.

“With regard to all of them, we believe that it is necessary and possible to take steps forward with a view to the enlargement process,” he said.

Costa added that Portugal “has a great advantage” in dialogue with the countries of that region, given that, due to “geographical distance, history and cultural reasons”, it is not “godfather to any of the countries of the Western Balkans” and looks “at all of them with equal objectivity”.

“And so we can be honest and frank partners in identifying difficulties, but also in providing political, technical and financial support to try to overcome these difficulties,” he said.

Anticipating a “long and difficult European Council meeting, which probably won’t end on Friday”, Costa nevertheless expressed hope that the summit would result in “a commitment by the EU to the expectations it has created for Ukraine and the countries of the Western Balkans”.

This “is the result of a political and moral imperative, but also of a correct reading of the geopolitical challenges facing the EU,” he said.

(Tiago Almeida, edited by Nuno Simas | Lusa.pt)