Brussels 5 February 2020,
Statement by MEP Željana Zovko on the new enlargement methodology:
I welcome the new methodology presented today by Commissioner Varhelyi. It is great news for Croatia, the most affected EU frontier state. About 1,1 million citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are holders of EU-Croatian passports and we are highly concerned with the situation of EU citizens at the other side of the border.
This new methodology offers a new start to increase our efforts to establish permanent peace and stability in the region, which is paramount for the security of EU citizens. The new methodology also gives the EU Member States a bigger say in the enlargement process, a task that is now largely in the hands of the European Commission, which has been accused of being too upbeat in its assessments.
As corapporteur for the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III) and as directly elected representative of EU citizens, I expect in the future more involvement of the European Parliament and acknowledgement and implementation of the Parliament’s resolutions. These resolutions, adopted by the majority in this House focus in the progress and the way forward for these countries. We are facilitators for enlargement, we are their strongest advocate within the EU institutions and therefore expect our resolutions to be heard, discussed and implemented. This counts for the respective parliaments in the region as well as for the Commission and the EU delegations in charge of implementing the voice of the EU citizens, embedded in these resolutions.