The Hellenic Parliament hosted the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC), under the chairmanship of Yiannis Plakiotakis in Agios Nikolaos Lasithi, Crete.
The conference started on Thursday and will end on Friday with thematic sections related to European enlargement, Immigration, and the Middle East. The conference was attended by the vice-president of the European Commission for the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, who during his speech spoke about the current geopolitical context.
"This commitment is not a matter of geographic, but of geopolitical priority. The accession of these states to the Union is not a simple geographical expansion of the territory of the EU. The accession of the Balkan states means deepening political and economic ties, strengthening our collective security and revitalizing our common commitment to a democratic model of society based on values," Schinas said and emphasized that this is "a brave and necessary step forward" especially as he mentioned, after Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, "where our strategic relationship with the Western Balkans - which paves the way for their joining the EU - has become more critical than ever."
In his speech, Margaritis Schinas also talked about the EU report, the enlargement policy and the progress made by each of the candidate member states.
He referred to the goal of "an increasingly wise Εuropean Union, which learns from its mistakes but without ever questioning its potential" which, as he emphasized, "remains stable on its course, despite the waves and turmoil that threaten to disorient it."