Why Germany’s top diplomat thinks a bigger EU is a better EU

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Good morning. A scoop to start: More progress in the post-Brexit rekindling of EU-UK relations, as the UK government moves to sharply reduce border bureaucracy for French school trips (which have plummeted since Britain cut ties with Brussels), and considers doing the same with other EU countries.

Today, our man in Berlin hears Germany’s foreign minister endorse Ukraine’s EU membership and acknowledge the tough decisions the bloc needs to make before enlargement, while I run you through the damage wreaked on Europe by storm Ciarán yesterday.

Have a great weekend — and stay away from falling trees.

Full house

A bigger Europe is a better Europe, Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock declared yesterday, as she raised hopes that EU leaders will formally open membership talks with Ukraine when they meet next month, writes Sam Jones.

Context: Ukraine has pushed for existing member states to approve the opening of its formal EU accession negotiations at the summit in December. Politically, almost all the bloc’s 27 countries are in favour of doing so, but a report by the European Commission next week on Kyiv’s reform scorecard will be important to give bureaucratic approval for a positive decision.

“I am convinced that the European Council is going to send out that signal,” Baerbock told a conference of diplomats, politicians and think-tankers gathered in Berlin to discuss the bloc’s future. “The heart of Europe beats in Kyiv.”

But she said that Europe had to make painful changes in order to accommodate new members.

Baerbock’s warning underscores the arguably more complex part of the EU’s enlargement debate: how to reform the union itself to make as many as ten new members feasible.

While the EU’s to-do list for prospective members is detailed and clear, there is little clarity on exactly what the EU’s existing members can, should — and would be willing — to do before enlarging the club.

Those painful changes, Baerbock said, should include giving up on the principle that each country gets to appoint a commissioner, the EU’s equivalent of a minister. And scrapping the unanimity principle in decision-making on topics like EU foreign policy and the bloc’s finances. 

“Tackling this requires courageous decisions. And from all of us. For a country like my country, Germany, that could mean that we say: We are prepared to forgo a commissioner for a time,” she said.

She continued: “We should make more decisions with qualified majority voting, from financial issues to foreign policy . . . Yes, we discussed this intensively: This will mean that countries will be outvoted.”

It was “simple mathematics” she added that “in an EU with more than 36 vetoes, the risk of a blockade will eventually become unmanageable”.

As well as Ukraine, the EU will have to get realistic about speeding up accession for Moldova, Georgia and the western Balkans, Baerbock added. And Turkey: foreign minister Hakan Fidan was among those listening intently in the audience.

“We can no longer afford to have grey areas in Europe,” Baerbock said. 

Two “guiding principles” were now clear, she concluded. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attempts to “plough an imperial trench” across the continent meant “enlargement of our union is a geopolitical necessity, but at the same time it is also a geopolitical opportunity”. 

Chart du jour: The rain in Spain

This year, foreign travellers poured into northern Spain — long perceived as too rainy for summer breaks — as scorching temperatures on the southern coast raised questions about the effect of climate change on tourism on the Mediterranean.

Killer weather

At least six people were killed across western Europe yesterday as 120mph winds left a trail of destruction across France and other countries, crippling power grids and transport infrastructure.

Context: Storms, cyclones and extreme temperatures are becoming increasingly common in Europe as global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions affects weather patterns. Extreme weather caused more than €50bn in economic losses in the EU last year.

Storm Ciarán ripped across Spain, France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany yesterday, tearing the roofs off homes and cutting power to 1.2mn French citizens. Rotterdam and Antwerp, Europe’s two largest ports, part-suspended container operations because of the high winds.

Anyone who ventured out yesterday in western Europe would have seen plant foliage littering the streets. Falling trees and branches killed at least six people, and injured dozens more.

Forecasters said that while the worst of the storm appeared to have passed, European countries should expect gusts of wind and heavy rain for the next few days as the front dissipates.

“Stay out of dangerous situations,” the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said yesterday. “A selfie in stormy conditions isn’t worth risking your life for.”

What to watch today

1. Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas meets Francia Márquez, vice-president of Colombia, for lunch.

2. Lithuania’s finance minister Gintarė Skaistė hosts her German counterpart Christian Lindner for talks.

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