The present structure of the European Union would be impractical if it had more than 30 members, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said after meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on Wednesday, Euractiv reports.
Tusk’s office said they discussed priorities for the new European Parliament and the next Commission, including EU enlargement, which Metsola called the bloc’s “strongest geopolitical instrument” that also needs change and reform. She also said:
“Our Union is a constantly changing project which requires constant adjusting. We have to understand that the current structure of the EU will not be appropriate any more in a Union counting 32, 33 or 35 members.”
Among other things, the EU must strengthen its security architecture “in co-operation, not in competition with NATO,” Metsola said, noting that the war in Ukraine “remains a constant threat to the EU’s security, its democratic system, its stability, its values and its European way of life.”
Among other challenges facing the EU and the European Parliament in the coming years, Metsola also cited the need to improve the bloc’s competitiveness, tackle the cost of living crisis, create jobs and promote sustainable development.
While she did not outline specific policy priorities for the next European Commission, she said that the results of the June European elections suggest that people voted for a positive Europe that sets and achieves its goals, and that the new commission’s programme should be in line with this.
After the meeting in Warsaw, Metsola travelled to Olsztyn in northern Poland to meet Polish youth at Campus Polska Przyszłości (Poland of the Future), a youth camp organised by Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO, EPP) bloc. Poland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2025.
