Cypriot. Irish Ambassadors to Serbia: EU Enlargement Can Benefit Both - Candidate and Member States

(BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

The European Union (EU) enlargement process could bring benefits to both, the citizens of the candidate countries and member states, and there is a strong momentum in the EU now for accepting new members, including Serbia, the ambassadors of Ireland and Cyprus, Kevin Colgan and Andreas Photiou respectively, said in Belgrade on June 30.  

Colgan, the Ambassador of Ireland, which will assume the Presidency of the Council of the EU from July 1, said that his country has categorized its priorities during its presidency into three groups: competitiveness, value and security, while one of the priorities will be the EU enlargement process.

“Ireland strongly supports enlargement and as a country, we have benefited enormously from EU membership. We have gone from being one of the poorest countries in Europe to becoming one of the most developed and successful,” Colgan told reporters ahead of the panel titled “From Cyprus to Ireland: How to capitalize on the results of the Tivat Summit?” organize by the Center for European Policies (CEP) and the EU Delegation to Serbia, which marked Ireland’s takeover of the Presidency of the Council of the EU from Cyprus.

The Ambassador of Cyprus, Andreas Photiou, recalled that during his country Presidency in the first half of the year, Cyprus achieved “tangible progress in the enlargement process with several accession countries, including Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro, and Albania, while progress had also been made in cooperation with other candidate countries such as Serbia.”

“The dialogue has continued, and reforms are underway. We encourage further progress in the coming months so that we can achieve concrete advances in the accession negotiations,” he said. 

Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Andreas von Beckerath noted that in their respective presidencies, the two countries share great attention to the EU enlargement process, adding that the Tivat Summit and a large number of non-papers show that there is momentum behind EU enlargement. 

“Serbia has the necessary potential to catch up with Albania and Montenegro (in the negotiating process) as it is the richest country in the region, if the political will and momentum come together,” von Beckerath said.