6 Oct, 2023 20:42

EU boss backtracks on Ukraine pledge

Aspiring bloc members, including Kiev, will not be given any shortcuts towards membership, Ursula von der Leyen has signaled

Countries aspiring to join the EU must follow the “merit-based” accession process and reach the milestones outlined by the bloc’s rules, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

The EU chief made the remarks during a press conference following a summit of the bloc’s leaders in the Spanish city of Granada. Von der Leyen touched upon the accession process of prospective members, stating that all of them must follow due procedures.

“The process is merit-based,” the EU Commission head explained. “There are clear rules, there are milestones that have to be achieved.”

Such a stance was included in the joint declaration that was adopted during the summit. While the document reiterated the bloc’s readiness to “continue to support Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes,” it also warned that potential new members will be given no shortcuts during the accession process.

“Aspiring members need to step up their reform efforts, notably in the area of rule of law, in line with the merit-based nature of the accession process and with the assistance of the EU. In parallel, the Union needs to lay the necessary internal groundwork and reforms,” the declaration reads.

While the document did not provide any timeframe for when an expansion will actually happen, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said the bloc should be ready to expand by 2030. “What’s important is to stop procrastinating,” he said during the press conference.

The remarks by the top EU officials come in contrast to earlier statements about the prospects for Ukraine’s accession. In mid-September, for instance, von der Leyen said Ukraine would “complete” the bloc and claimed that the move would not necessarily require an amendment to the Treaties of the European Union, the legal foundation for its existence.

Joining the EU has been a key talking point for pro-West Ukrainian politicians for decades, yet little actual progress on that path was achieved before the conflict between Kiev and Moscow broke out in February 2022. However, the hostilities have seemingly re-invigorated the process, with top Ukraine officials repeatedly demanding the country be accepted into the bloc as soon as possible due to its perceived role in defending the EU from an allegedly looming Russian invasion.

However, in recent weeks, numerous current and former EU officials have warned against fast-tracking Ukraine’s admission, arguing, for various reasons, that it might do more harm than good to the bloc itself. Perhaps the most damning opinion was voiced by Jean-Claude Juncker, a former president of the European Commission, who argued that Ukraine was simply way too corrupt to join the EU anytime soon.

“Those who have dealt with Ukraine know that this is a country that is corrupt at all levels of society,” Juncker said in an interview with Germany’s Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

(They never intended to accept them in the EU, just like all the promises of NATO, they were just promising to appease the shitty ingrates in Kiev.)

https://www.rt.com/news/584193-ukraine-eu-membership-shortcuts/

6 Oct, 2023 19:01

EU ‘raped’ Hungary and Poland – Orban

Budapest and Warsaw cannot agree to a deal that will force them to accept migrants, the Hungarian leader declared

The EU legally “raped” Hungary and Poland by forcing through a deal that will compel member states to accept quotas of illegal immigrants, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. He added that Hungary will not compromise with Brussels on such an arrangement.

“There is no chance to have any kind of compromise and agreement on migration,”Orban told reporters ahead of a meeting on EU leaders in Spain. “Politically, it is impossible.”

“Because legally we are, how to say it, we are raped. So if you are raped legally, forced to accept something you don’t like, how would you like to have a compromise? It’s impossible!”

EU ambassadors agreed on a landmark migration pact on Wednesday. The deal will see illegal immigrants – most of whom land in Italy and Greece after crossing the Mediterranean – transported to other EU countries on a quota basis. While it allows for migrants to be held longer in processing centers at the EU’s external borders, it also allows asylum applications to be fast-tracked in times of “crisis.”

Hungary and Poland voted against the pact, while Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic abstained.

Previous attempts by Brussels to impose migrant quotas have also been met with resistance in Budapest and Warsaw. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2020 that both broke EU law by refusing to take a single migrant out of 160,000 relocated during the 2015 migration crisis.

The new deal is likely to be enforced harder, with EU ministers voting in June to fine member states €20,000 ($21,170) for each migrant they refuse to take in under the relocation scheme. This provision made it into the deal signed on Wednesday.

“They want to relocate migrants to Hungary by force,” Orban said in June. “This is unacceptable, they want to forcefully turn Hungary into a migrant country.”

Poland “squarely rejects” the migration pact, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters ahead of Friday’s meeting, stating that his government’s opposition to non-EU immigration is “first and foremost about the security of our country.”

European Commissioner Ylva Johansson announced last week that 250,000 people illegally entered the EU in 2023, around half of them arriving in Italy by sea. This is the highest number of illegal entries in a year since the peak of the 2015 crisis.

With individual states clashing over the influx – most recently when Italy condemned Germany for funding ‘rescue’ ships that transport migrants to its shores – EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned last month that the issue of immigration “could be a dissolving force for the European Union.”

https://www.rt.com/news/584194-eu-raped-hungary-orban/