News: Friends of the Western Balkans: Rome Charter adopted on the future of the EU enlargement process

The countries of the Friends of the Western Balkans Group, gathered in Rome on Italy’s initiative, adopted the Rome Charter, a political document aimed at defining guiding principles for the future enlargement process of the European Union. The main objective is to preserve the credibility, predictability and unity of enlargement policy, ensuring that the current geopolitical context does not undermine the merit-based principle on which the accession process is founded.

The Charter was signed by Italy, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia, with Hungary participating for the first time, and will be presented in Brussels as the common position of the Friends of the Western Balkans Group.

The document reaffirms the principle of full equality among all Member States once the accession process is completed, rejecting the possibility of permanent differentiated integration, “second-class” membership or privileged paths for some candidates. While confirming support for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, Italy’s position, expressed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, stresses that this should not come at the expense of the Western Balkan countries, which have been engaged for years in implementing the reforms required by the Union.

The Charter also recognises the possibility of differentiated participation in specific European policies, similar to the Schengen area, and the introduction of safeguard clauses in future accession treaties. The document further highlights the growing importance of the security dimension in the enlargement process, supporting the need to further integrate security-related aspects into the EU accession policy.

Photo credits: UK Government, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons