Good morning from Warsaw, Poland has invested €86 billion in the European Union project and gained €261 billion in the 20 years since it joined the regional club, according to data presented by Funds and Regional Policy Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęczit on Tuesday. Today, the EU commemorates 20 years since the last large round of enlargement when ten countries – Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia – joined the bloc. “To all those who say that we pay extra for the European Union: it is actually exactly the opposite,” the minister said. Looking at the future, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote in an op-ed that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine made EU’s expansion a “geopolitical necessity”. “Political and geographical ‘grey zones’ in the Balkans or the east of the EU are highly dangerous. We cannot afford such grey zones as for Putin, they are an invitation to interfere and destabilise”, she said. Moreover, European affairs ministers and their counterparts from EU candidate countries started informal talks on Tuesday on strengthening the rule of law within the bloc and in countries seeking to join it. Also read an analysis published earlier this week regarding the progress “new” members have made since they joined in several fields, from economy to corruption and press freedom. However, in health, inequalities persist 20 years after the 2004 enlargement. Later in the morning, Euractiv’s health team will publish an analysis focusing on the current state of play in healthcare. | 