Cohesion and Reforms Commissioner Elisa Ferreira has made a case for European Union enlargement by admitting Ukraine, claiming that absorbing Ukraine will make the EU more powerful. She was speaking in answer to Brussels Signal questions at a press conference on October 9 at Autoworld, Brussels.
Ferreira used the example of the 1986 enlargement of Spain and Portugal to show that the “fears inherent in enlargement” are “common but not justified”.
“In 1986 there were similar discussions about the risks of including new members: that the French agricultural industry would be destroyed, the same with the German heavy industry … that there were not enough funds,” she recalled. “But then in 2004 we made the biggest enlargement in history and everything went for the better.”
The commissioner said she did not believe that “Europe would be weakened by these enlargements” because “we have a larger internal market, a more prosperous EU and also greater geopolitical relevance”.
Ferreira said Ukraine’s inclusion in the European project was a “strategic opportunity”.
“Access to Ukraine is something that, of course, can be a great boost to the European economy because helping to rebuild these countries and investing in them will be a great stimulus,” she told Brussels Signal.
She added: “We have learned from past enlargements,” and that while cohesion policies were a “safeguard for the stability of Europe” what was needed was appropriate “funding”.
“We have to promote the development of both cities and the countryside, because if we only take care of the large population centres, this difference in development will cause brain drain, internal migration, ageing … and, at the end of the day, these cities will become megalopolises with great inefficiency in which pockets of poverty will be created,” she said.
“There is a correlation between disenchantment with the European Union and democracy and less development in a region’, but that ‘it is not the only reason’ and that ‘there are also cultural factors,” Ferreira stated.
She had harsh words for what she called “critical media that create artificial discontent” against the EU and its policies.
The European Union’s plan to integrate Ukraine into the EU does not currently include the parts of the country currently under Russian control, a senior eurocrat has claimed. https://t.co/dzDpRU38yp
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 10, 2024
