Eight countries currently have official EU candidate status – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine – while two, Georgia and Kosovo, are potential candidate countries.
“In a couple of weeks time you will see us presenting a new way of thinking about enlargement and a package that will now include 10 candidate countries, or countries with a European perspective,” Varhelyi told a news conference. Varhelyi said the EU would seek to help the candidates prepare faster for EU membership through a growth plan for the Western Balkans to reduce the “economic and social gap” between these countries and the rest of the EU before accession.
“We want to create the opportunity to gradually integrate these countries into the single market, into the four freedoms, already before accession, because this will be for the benefit of both the European Union and for the candidate countries,” Varhelyi said.