The EU has a ‘responsibility’ towards candidate countries
Euronews sat down with Marta Kos last week for a group interview in which the enlargement commissioner said that the EU has learnt from its mistakes with the UK and Georgia and is now prepared to be “more assertive” including by investing in candidate countries to counter fake narratives.
Kos, who took office in December last year, said 2025 marked a departure for the way the European Commission approached enlargement, notably because “it was the first time that we invested resources, we have invested men and women power to help fend off foreign malign interference”.
“This included for the first time the deployment of the EU’s rapid hybrid response team,” she added.
The beneficiary was Moldova, whose bid to become an EU member state was launched just weeks after Russia rolled its tanks into Ukraine in its full-scale invasion in early 2022.
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Get ready for an action-packed day
Today is D-Day for enlargement as leaders from six of the candidate countries will join Euronews in Brussels for an exclusive summit to discuss their accession progress, just as the European Commission will unveil its annual report card.
Here’s the schedule for the summit (all times CET):
- 14:10: Keynote by European Council President Antonio Costa;
- 14:16: The Europe Conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy;
- 14:38: The European Conversation with Moldova’s Maia Sandu;
- 14:59: EU Enlargement Talks panel with Albania’s Edi Rama, North Macedonia’s Hristijan Mickoski, and Montenegro’s Filip Ivanović;
- 16:00: The Europe Conversation with Marta Kos;
- 16:24: The Ring with MEPs David McAllister and Marc Botenga;
- 16:53: The Europe Conversation with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
But before that, our team of crack reporters will also bring you coverage of Marta Kos appearing in front of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee where she will preview the enlargement report.