Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister has suggested the EU would benefit from enlargement on the global stage.
The first day of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum took place in Geneva, as world leaders came together to discuss the world's current challenges.
Among the attendees, Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh plea at the event, calling for more international support for his country’s continuing war against Russia.
He told the crowd: "If anybody thinks this is just about Ukraine, they are fundamentally mistaken."
Mariya Gabriel speaks at the first day of Davros
Reuters
Zelensky stated: "Every ‘do not escalate’ sounded like ‘you will prevail’ to Putin. Because of ‘don’t escalate’, lives were lost."
"One man has stolen at least 13 years of peace, replacing them with pain and crisis that impact the entire world."
During a panel, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mariya Gabriel, President and CEO of Scania, Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, Christian Levin, Montenegro's Prime Minister Milojko Spajic and Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Yulia Svyrydenko were asked questions on the EU and their role in responding to global challenges.
Gabriel called on the European Union to "make an additional effort" to address challenges faced by both member states and those wanting to be members, such as Ukraine.
Gabriel told the panel: "We need to talk about this because it's something that we share in this difficult world of rule, of law, democracy.
"It's also our capacity to respond to global challenges. That's enlargement, that's what we need to address."
She continued: "It's not only digitalisation, it's not only climate, it's energy, it's infrastructure, it's young people, it's the region development.
"If we make an additional effort to show our citizens that there are benefits on a daily basis, we'll be much more able to convince them."
Ministers from Bulgaria, Montenegro and Ukraine spoke on a panel at the World Economic Forum
Reuters
Gabriel called for the EU to "address internal reforms" needed within the Union, ahead of accepting new members and following the UK's exit in 2020.
Gabriel warned: "Please don't start to talk about changing the treaties before answering what we would like to achieve, because there will be change.
"I think that we need to change the approach. We need to show our partners that the own merit principle is an important one and we can be there to support them for that."
