- 4 minutes ago
MEPs debate EU enlargement at Euronews Summit in Brussels
As the European Commission released its latest progress report on candidate countries, MEPs Riho Terras (EPP) and Pasquale Tridico (The Left Group) go head to head over one of Europe's most ambitious political projects.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/11/04/meps-debate-eu-enlargement-at-euronews-summit-in-brussels
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As the European Commission released its latest progress report on candidate countries, MEPs Riho Terras (EPP) and Pasquale Tridico (The Left Group) go head to head over one of Europe's most ambitious political projects.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/11/04/meps-debate-eu-enlargement-at-euronews-summit-in-brussels
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello and welcome to this special edition of The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show
00:14broadcasting live from the Euronews Enlargement Summit from Autoworld in Brussels. I'm Stefan
00:21Grober. Now here on The Ring, politicians go face-to-face on some of the biggest issues
00:26facing the continent and on this episode we are honing in on really the future of Europe. With
00:34Ukraine's accession ambitions and the Western Balkans long wait for membership, EU enlargement
00:41is once again at the center of Europe's political debate. While some see expansion as a strategic
00:48necessity to strengthen European security and democracy, others warn that rushing the process
00:55risks undermining peace, democratic standards and the EU's own cohesion. So after years of promises
01:05and delays, can the EU move forward credibly and should geopolitical interests come before strict
01:13membership rules? So a lot to unpack here for our contenders in The Ring today. And here they are.
01:22Pascale Torridico, Italian member of the European Parliament with the left group. And Rio Terras,
01:27also member of the European Parliament with the European People's Party from Estonia. Please welcome
01:33to The Ring, gentlemen.
01:37Pascale.
01:42So let's start with Serbia, where the parliamentary elections just a few days ago brought to power
01:48a student movement that is not necessarily more pro-European than the government of Aleksandr Vucic.
01:56Do you still see Serbia on track to become an EU member state in the foreseeable future?
02:02Rio, I'm going to start with you.
02:03Well, I'm not predicting anything what the student movement is or is not because they have not,
02:08they were not willing to declare their political views before they were winning and they won with
02:16the avalanche. So I think it is important that Serbian people have decided that the regime of
02:24Vucic was not democratic enough. And now it is in the hands of these people who have been elected to
02:32the parliament to decide which track Serbia needs to take. And I am convinced that the track is European
02:39track because Serbian people are very much willing.
02:42Pascale, how do you see it?
02:44That's right. We don't know much about their...
02:47Yeah, we don't know much, but I would be quite, I mean, I'm quite happy about the fact that young
02:52students all over Europe today are demonstrating and fighting for their right. They want to take the future.
02:57And in fact, we see as well in Serbia, it's happening directly through democratic process,
03:02the election. So this is something that needs to be respected and seen positive in particular,
03:07because as we know, the government of Vucic was quite corrupted. There were accusations of that.
03:14Europe was complaining as well against the government.
03:19Does Serbia, at the end of the day, needs to make a choice between its friendship to Russia
03:25and the European Union?
03:28Nowadays, there is only...
03:29We're getting mixed signals here, right?
03:31Nowadays, there is only black and white. If you are not with European Union, Russia will grab you.
03:40And we have seen that Ukraine announcing their willingness to have an association agreement
03:46with the European Union caused the war and Russia attacked Ukraine.
03:50So, in my opinion, there is no free space in defense, no free space in economy,
03:57and Europe needs to use the opportunity right now.
04:00Would you agree?
04:01Well, I'm quite skeptical to the idea of seeing the world in general, black and white,
04:08the world, countries that need to make a choice to be there and there.
04:12Member states have their own Eastern tradition, so they may be linked with some countries.
04:19I don't make this as a necessary condition.
04:22You have to disconnect all your legacy from...
04:28You know, we need to understand better the tradition and the root of the people.
04:31I see today that there is an issue with Russia, and I see the war of aggression.
04:36But once we...
04:38We cannot change geography.
04:41Geography is there for us to be ruled, to be governed.
04:46And countries, they have ties.
04:47If we see the world as block, which are one against another, we don't see the room for politics, in
04:58fact.
04:58Politics needs, in general, to create leads.
05:02But Europe is funding and supporting Ukraine.
05:06And isn't it fair to say to Serbia, you need to cut off your relations with Russia?
05:11Otherwise, there's no European...
05:12Well, I don't think it is any need to say to the countries anything.
05:16That's the more democratic governments who make decisions.
05:18And Ukraine has made...
05:19Ukrainian people have elected the president and the government which wants Ukraine to join European Union.
05:27And Russia attacked Ukraine because of that.
05:30They did not want that Ukraine becomes a part of European family of democratic nations.
05:37And the same decision lies on the Serbia side.
05:40If they want to join the European Union, they must.
05:42We must do everything possible to help them to get to the level that they will be accepted by other
05:48European Union nations.
05:49But we should not tell the people what to do or what not to do.
05:53So, in more general terms, the EU already struggles sometimes with the decision-making among 27 member states.
06:02Now, there are 30, 35 member states in the future.
06:07That would lead many people to say, it's enough.
06:10This becomes unmanageable.
06:12What do you tell these people?
06:13Why that?
06:14As Europe had only seven members, they thought that's impossible to take decisions in 15.
06:21It's impossible to take decisions in 20.
06:23As we were joining, it was said, well, taking them, the decisions will not be possible.
06:28It is always possible.
06:30The European Union has shown that it finds the finances and it finds the solutions for administrative solutions to enlarge.
06:39Just because it has been the most successful economic project of the history of mankind.
06:45And we need to go on with it because if we don't, then we will lose this battle.
06:50We should step forward.
06:52Pasquale.
06:52Well, you know, Stefan, which country has been historically in Europe in favor of the enlargement?
06:59Guess one.
07:01UK.
07:01UK has been historically in favor of all the enlargement possible.
07:05You know why?
07:06Because actually, Europe, UK wants to weakening the process of integration through enlargement.
07:14And I would say, in a way, this objective was reached.
07:19This was one of the biggest objectives of Margaret Thatcher, who was not really a Europeanist in the sense of
07:25a federalist European.
07:26Actually, I see the enlargement as a process which could happen only if you manage to deepen the integration.
07:35If we do enlargement just because of military purpose, for instance, or just because we do have just one specific
07:44objective, forgetting the common market, forgetting the social dimension, forgetting the peace on which Europe is founded, then I think
07:53that we do a mistake.
07:55Enlargement is a process which needs, first of all, reform, which needs increasing.
07:59Look at the budget.
08:00We are fighting it in Europe for 1% budget.
08:04For what?
08:05How can we define that Europe if we don't have a budget to spend?
08:09With more member states, actually, this would be even more dangerous to create a common budget because most of them
08:16are against, would be against.
08:18Against the social dimension, against the spending, against the common budget, against many common objectives that we, in 1957, we
08:27thought that these were very important to respect.
08:32So, okay, a lot of points here.
08:34I want to go back to Rio.
08:35Are you agreeing with it?
08:36No, absolutely.
08:37I don't agree at all.
08:38I mean, we should see enlargement as an opportunity.
08:43And I'll take Ukraine because it is the biggest one.
08:46The small ones, it was talked on the scene today.
08:49The small ones, they are, say, easier, digestible for European Union.
08:54But Ukraine, with its 40 million people, is, of course, a challenge.
08:59The same thing which was said about Poland.
09:01And today, Poland is the most, one of the most successful economies, even through the recession times, Poland was very
09:09solid on its economy.
09:11And it's now one of the pillars of European Union.
09:15Ukraine has educated very clever people.
09:18Ukraine has the biggest national resources of Europe.
09:21I'm not talking about agriculture, but even the natural resources are the biggest in Europe.
09:26It should be seen as an opportunity, as an opportunity to get stronger with a bigger market, with economical wealth
09:36against all the other nations who are competing with us.
09:39I mean, the United States is much bigger, how somehow they manage to deal with themselves.
09:46And they also have bigger problems.
09:49Of course they have.
09:50Everybody has.
09:50Do you agree with this?
09:51Do you agree with this assessment?
09:53Well, since you made that comparison with the United States, we are bigger, 27 today, and we did not even
09:59manage to have a common policy against the tariff of Trump.
10:03Because we disagree with the approach that we need to maintain against Trump.
10:07If we are 35, do you think that it would be easy to find a trade policy, a common answer
10:12to Trump?
10:13Well, this is what I mean when enlargement done without a process could even weaken Europe.
10:20I'm not prejudicially against enlargement.
10:22Actually, I'm in favor of the enlargement.
10:24I think that enlargement before that needs to create common policy, reform in the institutional setting, and as well a
10:34reflection of what Europe is about.
10:38Europe is about a market.
10:40Well, we do not need a European Union if Europe is about a market.
10:43We just have a trade union then.
10:46Europe is about a social dimension, an economic dimension, a common idea of where we want to be in 20,
10:5350, 100 years from now.
10:56Okay, let me stop you right there.
10:58As we're just getting warmed up here, it's now time for gloves off.
11:07Now, we want viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament where members ask each other questions and
11:15respond to each other directly.
11:17That means we want our contenders today to challenge each other directly, just as you do in the hemicycle in
11:23Strasbourg and Brussels.
11:25So, let's get started, and I'm going to start with you, Rio.
11:28What's your question to Pasquale?
11:30I have heard your arguing about that the European defence policy is dominated by Estonia.
11:39Do you really think that one million people can dominate anything, first?
11:43But, secondly, do you think that we should neglect the possibility of trying to dominate defence after Russia has attacked
11:52Estonia in the last thousand years 42 times,
11:55which makes it every 25 years, and we are right now on the 35th year of our independence.
11:59So, do you really think that Estonia should shut up as a small country and not talk about defence the
12:05way you posted it?
12:08No, I don't think, probably you refer to something else that I said, and I would confirm that.
12:13The three most important commissioners today in Europe, they are Dombrowski, Economy, Kubilius, Defence, and Callas, Foreign Affair.
12:25Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.
12:27So, this basically underlines a kind of strong interest only for that part of Europe.
12:36I understand the current period, the current moment in which we live, but if we don't bring Europe together, then
12:42Europe will weaken itself.
12:44So, I'm not against Estonia. I love Estonia.
12:46I've been teaching in Tallinn for a while.
12:49I've been quite international in Europe, travelling and teaching, which is my profession, in many Eastern Europeans.
12:56Actually, my PhD was about enlargement of Eastern Europe, and I focus exactly on the case of Poland.
13:03You know why Poland is a successful case that you manage?
13:06Because it managed to create the right institutions before, since 1993.
13:12Before, with a sort of therapy, reforming the state, building the nation within.
13:19And then, expanding policy, embracing Europe, the conditionality of Copenhagen in primus.
13:24And this was a successful case because of that.
13:26I'm not against Poland, I'm in favour.
13:28Pascal, I want you to ask a question to Rio, also.
13:32Don't forget.
13:33Do you think that Europe actually needs to increase the budget to face the challenge that we are facing, starting
13:41from social dimension,
13:42the protest of today in most of European countries, which actually underlines suffering,
13:49the crisis of the automotive, the crisis of industry.
13:52Do you think that the market alone can save us, along with the military, probably, conversion of the industry?
13:59Or do you think that actually we need to increase the budget and having unanimity as well in deep process
14:04of decision?
14:05I think the European Union needs to have the budget for its common projects.
14:09But I think the problems lie in the nations who are not following the Maastricht criteria.
14:16And the nations should get their own finances intact in the way that you will be able to pay your
14:23social services,
14:24you will be able to pay even for defence.
14:27Because the security and defence policy as foreign policy is responsibility of the European member nations and not European Union.
14:36Europe should concentrate on competitiveness of European as a whole.
14:42And the competitiveness has suffered a lot in the last years because of the very weak governments,
14:48say, in France, with a huge national debt.
14:53In Estonia, our national debt is 20%.
14:57Most of the European countries have it around 100% or more.
15:02You should have finances intact in your own countries.
15:06And not increase the European budget for that.
15:09So you use the common money.
15:11So it's like a big guy, a small guy.
15:14First we eat your sausage and then each of us eats his own.
15:19I don't think that is a good policy.
15:21All right.
15:21Thank you so much for this round.
15:22We've heard your views from our guests.
15:26Now it's time to hear from a new voice.
15:33And let's bring in the voice of Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission President.
15:38Just a few weeks ago, she characterised EU enlargement as this.
15:42And I quote,
15:53So, geopolitical imperative, Pascuala.
15:57Let's talk about the elephant in the room here, Russia.
16:00Has Russia's war against Ukraine turned enlargement into a matter of European security?
16:06Well, evidently, yes.
16:08Meaning that this is a fact.
16:11We are now speaking about enlargement exactly because of the geopolitical dimension.
16:15But this, I think, is the mistake.
16:17As far as we treat enlargement as a geopolitical dimension,
16:21we incur in the problem that I was underlining before.
16:24We forget about economy.
16:26We forget about social dimension.
16:28We forget about the issue on which 1957 Rome Treaty was founded.
16:33So, then I think that the phrase of Ursula von der Leyen,
16:39with due respect, should be a little bit reformulated.
16:42Rio, what do you think?
16:43Did we change the rules here?
16:45We're purely looking at security.
16:48No, I think Europe is a peace project.
16:50Europe has been a peace project from the very beginning.
16:53And I remember I was one of those who was working hard in the embassy
16:58towards European Union and NATO.
17:00And we have defined these aims already early 1990s
17:06because we saw it as something which delivers also security.
17:11And it is the same today.
17:13It has not changed.
17:14But Europe's focus should be still a competitiveness of European nations in the world
17:20because this is the strength.
17:22Last year, we overcome China as a gross domestic product
17:27and now rating second after the United States.
17:31We should use this power, this economic power, to influence.
17:36But nobody listens to us if we don't have weapons.
17:39So, we need to demilitarize ourselves back to the level where we were listened to.
17:44Today, Putin does not listen to us.
17:46We have seen President Stoob talking to Putin, got a lecture from him about the history.
17:55We should show that we are strong and we need to be counted with.
18:01Pascuale, we've heard about Russian influence in the Western Balkans,
18:08even in Western Europe, but in the Western Balkans in particular.
18:11Isn't that a reason more to say we need to admit these countries
18:16because otherwise they are left to Russian whims and Russian aggression?
18:24Well, it depends.
18:25It depends on what we mean by conditionality that Russia is exerting on Montenegro,
18:32on Serbia and so on.
18:34Those people, first of all, think about religion.
18:36Those people are mostly in Serbia, in Orthodox.
18:39Orthodox.
18:40They have linked, not with Putin, they have linked with some legacy, with some tradition.
18:45Do we need to ask these people to forget about your religion, forget about your patriarch?
18:50I don't think that this is a good approach from us, from a democratic point of view.
18:55We still claim, and we are a democratic union, so that we need to accept the legacy of the country.
19:02Then, as far as, of course, we think about political influences, choices, trade.
19:08Well, this needs to be discussed, and I would not be in favor.
19:13Do you agree?
19:14Do I agree that people need to have their culture taken care of?
19:18Yes, I do.
19:18I think religion is something which is a freedom of religion, is one of the core principles of European Union.
19:26I mean, I have no problem.
19:27But the problem is that Russia does not use Orthodox Church as a free will,
19:33but as a KGB following organization, which just influences the minds of the people
19:41in order to be with Putin in this war of aggression against Ukraine.
19:47Yeah, talk about people.
19:49We will do that in our next round, which is the fourth one.
20:01Let's take a look at how European citizens follow the current debates on enlargement
20:05and what their thinking is, especially their worries.
20:09And here we have a special Eurobarometer survey from 2025 that still offers some eye-opening clues.
20:16So when people across Europe are asked about their worries when it comes to enlargement,
20:2136% say, well, it creates more complicated decision-making at EU level.
20:2637%, it's the cost to European taxpayers that is worrying.
20:3139% say corruption, organized crime and terrorism.
20:3640% uncontrolled migration.
20:40How do you see these numbers, Pasquale?
20:41Does anything surprise you here?
20:44Well, not much.
20:44I think that this is quite true.
20:48It reflects very much as well the preoccupation of some citizens in Italy, which is my country.
20:55Cost of living today is very high in the priority.
21:00And people in Europe, people in Italy, underline the fact that the decision-making at European level
21:08is so slow, is so complex and so complicated.
21:11That's why when I say we need to first change our institution, and that's why the institution of the country,
21:17which is making accession to Europe before making enlargement,
21:24because this is what citizens would understand.
21:27Otherwise, actually, what we have seen in the last years is basically an increase of sovereignism,
21:34which is detrimental for the process of European integration.
21:37If we do not care about social issues, about cost of living, about cost of wage,
21:44which are not increasing, inflation, which is eroding, purchasing power,
21:47then we don't bring all the citizens together.
21:49And this is what we need to do.
21:51Ria, are we not, we as the European Union, communicating enough the advantages of enlargement?
22:00I mean, this uncontrolled migration, 40% of people worry about this.
22:04Is this justified?
22:05I think it is.
22:06I mean, we need to listen to the people.
22:08But first, the governments of the countries need to listen to the people.
22:13But there are certain things Europe can do.
22:15And, of course, the question about bureaucracy, which was one of the threats also,
22:20is something we need to deal with, because bureaucracy has a tendency to create more bureaucracy.
22:26We need to cut the red tape.
22:28We need to decrease significantly the European bureaucracy,
22:33because a lot of money comes always with bureaucracy, but we need to control the bureaucracy.
22:37The second thing is, absolutely, we need to combat the migration the same way we are dealing with the defense
22:44issues on the eastern border.
22:45We need to take care of the Mediterranean and all the questions of migration.
22:50And not invite everybody to be part of it, not legally or illegally.
22:57We need to concentrate on what our people want in our countries, and Europe should take the bigger challenges.
23:05Pasquale, we've seen time and again the political potency of the migration issue in Europe,
23:11in the public discourse and, of course, in election campaigns.
23:17Is it fair to say that migration and the migration issue is one of the biggest threats to enlargement?
23:25Because if the population is against it for this reason, what do we do?
23:31Yeah, probably it is.
23:32Probably it is part of the issue, because people and citizens are scared.
23:38Within a scarcity period as today, economies are not growing in Europe, actually.
23:43Most of the European countries' economies are stagnating.
23:46Wages are not increasing.
23:47Inflation is taking purchasing power.
23:50And then citizens think, wrongly I would say, but actually we need to explain that it is not the case,
23:56that migration may be an opportunity, as far as legal migration we are thinking,
24:02and as far as the opportunity of job are there.
24:07Look, there is a demographic issue in Europe.
24:12In Italy, as well as most of European countries, in Italy, fertility rate is 1,1.
24:17We actually have challenged our pension system, because in most of the European Union,
24:23the pension system relies on the number of workers working.
24:26Working not only with artificial intelligence, doing the smart things,
24:30but working as well in manufacture, in building construction, in agriculture.
24:35And nobody today, of European cities, in mostly cases, would like to do this job.
24:40So there is a demand of labour, which is as well a need for migration, which is legally integrated.
24:48I think that if we explain to citizens the need for migration, as far as demand of labour is concerned,
24:55then we can let them accept migration as part of a deal within the European Union.
25:02Italy has been a country of huge migration from south of Europe, from south of Italy, to north of Europe.
25:09Within the European Union, this was a resource.
25:12So if we look at the issue in this sense, but then you see, we are not speaking about defence.
25:17We are speaking about social issue, labour market issue.
25:21We are speaking about opportunity of demand of labour,
25:24and not about an abstract construction which has to do with defence and military issues.
25:30Okay, that will close this round. Thank you so much.
25:34And now it's time to move on to our fifth and last round.
25:42And here I'm going to ask you a set of questions to which you can only answer yes or no.
25:49Okay?
25:50Yeah.
25:50Yes, yes. Good.
25:52Rio, I'll start with you.
25:54Is a bigger EU a necessarily stronger EU?
25:58Yes.
26:00Well, yes.
26:01Okay.
26:02Should there be a reform of the treaties before further enlargement?
26:06Yes.
26:07No.
26:09Okay.
26:10Should Ukraine be an EU member before 2030?
26:14If merit-based, if it fits the conditions?
26:18Conditional, yes.
26:19Conditional, yes.
26:21Well, we need to change first the treaty, the institutional reform.
26:26We need to change, there are some conditionalities.
26:31Okay.
26:31Should we end the national veto on enlargement in general?
26:34No.
26:36No.
26:36No.
26:37No.
26:37Okay.
26:38Can Serbia join without abandoning its ties to Russia?
26:43If Serbia fulfills the requirements, then yes.
26:50If we are speaking about cultural links, no, I don't care.
26:54If we are speaking about political or defense links, well, this is not.
26:59Okay.
27:00Then, has enlargement become a test of Europe's geopolitical credibility?
27:05It has always been.
27:06Yeah.
27:06Okay.
27:08Thank you very much.
27:09That brings us to the end of this edition of The Ring.
27:12Thanks again to Pasquale and Rio for a lively conversation here from the European Enlargement Summit.
27:19Thanks to your audience here at home.
27:21If you like, you can continue the conversation by sending us your comments to thering at euronews.com.
27:28We love to have your feedback.
27:30That's it for this edition.
27:32I'm Stefan Gobert.
27:33Take care and see you soon on Euronews.
27:36Thank you very much.
27:38Take care.
27:39Take care very much.
27:40Thank you very much.