Marta Kos: No Partial EU Membership, No Leniency

Marta Kos (BETAPHOTO/EC - Audiovisual Service/Martine Perret)

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said she was critical of the idea proposed by Serbia and Albania that the two states be allowed to become members of the European single market and the Schengen area, underlining that there was no “lite” or partial membership, but only full membership in the Union, once all of the relevant obligations were met.

Commenting on the initiative presented by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in a joint article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Kos said that “these two politicians probably know that to join both the single market and Schengen, there is much to fulfill in the area of the rule of law.”

“So, there is no leniency,” Kos said, answering questions after giving a lecture at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland on April 30. She added that a debate was underway in the EU on whether the existing enlargement methodology was adequate given the present-day circumstances, and whether specific arrangements and gradual integration were possible, but that her role as commissioner for enlargement was to prepare countries for full membership.

When asked how the political crisis in Serbia had affected the accession process, Kos said Serbia was backsliding in many areas, which was why payments from the Growth Plan had been halted. “Serbia is a highly polarized country today. It has been a EU candidate country for more than 10 years. Unfortunately, we have seen, and we continue to see, that it is backsliding, particularly when it comes to the values I mentioned earlier - the rule of law, democracy, freedom of speech and, especially, the freedom of the media. Serbia has a future in the European Union, but the course must be turned around, or demonstrated more strongly through politicians’ actions,” she said.