Mr. Miroslav Laj?k:

That is a serious, important and difficult question because we also see the adherence to European values being eroded in our member states. It looks like our people are turning towards parties that are not necessarily built on European values. Therefore this issue is bigger than enlargement. It is about how the European Union is perceived in our countries, what messages we receive from the European Union and the EU's ability to communicate its policies correctly to its citizens. Every European election is anticipated with the fear that more MEPs will come from parties that are not traditionally pro-European. That is a worrying trend.

Going back to regional enlargement, the Deputy is correct that the group of candidates and future candidates is large and quite diverse. Turkey is making it clear that it would like to be seen as part of the enlargement group and to be invited to every forum to which the countries of the western Balkans are invited. It is important for Turkey to be seen as a country in the accession process. It is a complex issue which I do not want to elaborate on right now, as this is not the purpose of the discussion.

However, the western Balkans are carefully following the European Union's decisions with regard to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova with a sense of jealousy and a feeling that there are double standards. They believe we have been political when it comes to Ukraine in particular and Moldova, while we are bureaucratic when it comes to their region. There have been accusations that preferential treatment was given to eastern Europe. Issues that we do not see as a problem in the east, such as a country being at war or not controlling its territory, have been used as an excuse in the western Balkans. Therefore, we must be sensitive about the impact on the western Balkans when we make decisions about Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The best response would be increased European enthusiasm. We see this enthusiasm in Ukraine. We do not see it in the western Balkans but we do not want to end up with the western Balkans being even further disheartened as a consequence of our decisions on the east.

We need to strengthen the connection between the technical and political aspects of enlargement. For example, the European Commission stated six times that North Macedonia has met the conditions to start accession negotiations and every time the Council was unable to make this decision. Of course, this has a negative impact on the pro-European forces in that country and the credibility of the European Union. We must make it clear that if a country meets the technical criteria, the political decision should be almost automatic. We must trust that the Commission, that tells us its assessment, is professional.

Second, we must strengthen the political or value-based aspect of the accession process. Values have not been mentioned in the past ten years. It was all about Chapters 23 and 24, but not about wanting to be part of our family and sharing our values. For example, three countries have 100% alignment with European Union foreign policy statements. I would strongly advocate for these countries to be given some preferential treatment by being invited to our discussions. They have shown for years that they share our values and automatically join us. They should be rewarded by being invited more often to our meetings to show that this is important. For a number of member states, after the beginning of the war, it has been mostly, if not exclusively about joining our sanctions and aligning with our statements, but so far we have not found a way to express that we see the difference. This is also important.

We ought to have a serious discussion among ourselves about how we see the future of the alignment process and follow up with serious, practical policies on that. We have almost become lost in phrases like "One day you will join our family", which I can tell the committee no longer works in the region. We must change our approach. The war in Ukraine should be a wake-up call for us to be more focused, more political and more serious.