The European Union has a “responsibility” to help candidate countries stay on their European path, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said ahead of the release of the EU’s annual enlargement report.
Kos admitted that the EU had “learnt from its mistakes” with the UK and Georgia, acknowledging that Brussels knew about Russia’s high level of interference in Georgia but failed to act.
“When the UK decided to have a referendum, the EU said it was an internal affair. We didn’t even say: ‘Please stay.’ Like Georgia, where we already knew that the interference from Russia is high, we didn’t help,” Kos said.
She noted that 2025 marked a turning point in the European Commission’s approach to enlargement, as it became “more assertive” in countering foreign influence and disinformation.
“For the first time, we invested real resources — men and women power — to fend off foreign malign interference, including deploying the EU’s rapid hybrid response team,” she said, citing the team’s success in helping Moldova’s pro-European forces secure a landslide victory in recent elections.
Kos added that the EU is now actively studying and countering Russian narratives, using strategic communication to defend the European vision in candidate countries.
“Once they get candidate status, it becomes our responsibility to help them,” she emphasized.
The European Commission is set to release its 2025 enlargement review next week, which Kos described as marking “more progress than in the last 15 years,” though she cautioned that “2026 will bring even higher stakes.”
