Skopje, 15 July 2023 (MIA) - The ideas of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen focus on regional countries starting to feel the benefits of membership before they actually join the European Union, says EU Ambassador David Geer in an interview with MIA.

"This is not about a different kind of membership or two-speed, or three-speed memberships, the idea is that you would become a full member of the EU, just that on your way, if you are making that progress, then that could be what we call an accelerated integration which would bring early benefits. For example, in this country, the average income is only 41.5 percent of the 27 member states, and productivity of workers is about 16 percent of the EU average. So, clearly there needs to be a stimulus there. The ideas put forward by President von der Leyen, which are still being developed and discussed, is to see if there are areas where they can anticipate this kind of convergence, particularly in regards to the single market so that the country can start to get the benefits of membership, before it actually joins the EU itself," says Ambassador Geer.

He adds that for the average citizen in the EU, just membership of the single market of 450 million people is worth about EUR 840 a year.

"There are many other benefits. So, what governments and partners have been saying here is that we want to be a part of that, but what’s difficult for us is the process is quite long and we are not seeing the benefits arising sufficiently beforehand. You can argue about that because there is certainly foreign direct investment coming into the country as you get closer to the EU, but the Commission listened to that and had another question which is this – that for those countries joining the EU it’s clear that their economy has to improve significantly in order for them to be competitive in what is a very competitive environment," says Geer.