Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, said the European Union must establish a “new kind of partnership” with Turkey both in terms of economic cooperation and their joint handling of migration.
In an interview with Magyar Nemzet, Várhelyi referred to his visit to Afghanistan last week for talks on efforts to prevent a new migration wave from that country. “One key difference from the situation in 2015 is that right now it’s still not too late to prevent a crisis. But this means we must take the right steps, learn from the lessons of 2015 and concentrate on prevention.” Other differences compared with 2015, he said, were that Turkey had strengthened the protection of its borders, but the Afghanistan crisis now presented new challenges to Turkey and Europe. The current crisis “has shown that there is no other way but to work together with Ankara.”
Várhelyi also said the EU must enhance cooperation with the Western Balkan countries, too, on the issue of migration. The commissioner said he had recently held talks with the leaders of all the Western Balkan states that are taking in migrants and highlighted the security aspects of immigration. The Afghanistan crisis had, he said, also demonstrated “the serious consequences of not being strong and consistent enough in our geopolitical decision-making”. “Let’s imagine what would happen if the accession process of our Western Balkan partners were drawn out even further and — for some geopolitical reason — what ends up happening is not what we promised,” Várhelyi said. “And geographically, the Western Balkans is much closer to us than Afghanistan. This means Europe’s priority must be to integrate this region.”
Finally, in regards to the EU-Western Balkans summit scheduled for October, the commissioner said he looked forward to seeing which parts of the EU’s economic development plans for the region could start being implemented. “The aim is to support long-term stability and peace in that region,” he said. Concerning the accession process of Albania and North Macedonia, Várhelyi said both countries met all criteria for accession talks. Regarding Serbia, he said it was up to EU member states whether almost all accession chapters could be opened before the end of the year.
Photo credit: Magyar Nemzet