"The member states of the European Union agree that now is the time to step up efforts to enlarge the bloc", Poland’s foreign minister Zbigniew Rau said in Berlin on Thursday, while attending the conference.
The reason behind the event is a growing group of countries heading for EU membership. Six countries of the Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia - are at varying stages of the process of joining the EU. Meanwhile, Moldova and Ukraine were granted EU candidate status last year, and Georgia is awaiting a similar decision, according to officials.
During the event, Baerbock expressed her support for the notion of Ukraine joining the EU - and informed that numerous politicians across the Union feel the same way.
"When we were in Kyiv last month with all our EU Foreign Minister colleagues - we all felt that the heart of Europe beats in Kyiv. We have now found a consensus among us that we need to expand our Union further. This is the geopolitical consequence of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine. But an enlarged EU will only be stronger if we do what we have hesitated to do for a long time: an overhaul of how our Union works. Because if the number of EU members increases by a third - then our community needs a strong structure from the basement to the roof."
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