The interests of the EU (European Union), as well as the defense of international peace and security, demand that Ukraine's request for admission to the EU, which it formally submitted a few days after the start of the Russian invasion, and that through an "accelerated procedure", is not acted upon. article on the website tvxs.gr Greek economic expert and former European Commission (EC) official Sotiris Volden.
It is expected that the EC will express its opinion on this request from Kiev this month, and Walden believes that the Union should reject it because "the admission of Ukraine to the EU and any step towards it would mean a significant additional escalation of the conflict between the West and Europe with Russia, which is undesirable and dangerous".
Ukraine is the victim of a completely illegal attack and is rightly asking for all possible support to defend itself, Volden writes, and notes that it is understandable that its president Volodymyr Zelensky makes excessive demands, including that "the West essentially declares a world war" or imposes sanctions that will "blow up the world economy".
Moscow's argument that Ukraine's entry into NATO would harm its interests was implicitly accepted in the West, and now as a solution for the future peace agreement "the neutralization and non-entry of Ukraine into NATO is implied".
In this regard, Walden explains that the position that EU admission is a "light" (light) version of NATO admission and therefore will not cause an appropriate reaction from Moscow is unfounded, because "times have passed when Moscow distinguished the EU from NATO ", and "the EU contributed to such a perception by accepting the aggressive anti-Russian policy of the USA".
Advocating for the admission of Ukraine to the EU therefore "serves the strategy of those who seek the continuation and intensification of the conflict with Russia, until its (uncertain) decisive defeat, ignoring the additional bloodshed (mainly Ukrainians) that such a development entails, ignoring the global economic crisis that it will also cause, as well as the risk of the war derailing and turning into a nuclear holocaust".
Walden writes that the "forces of reason" recently, above all in Europe, reject this "adventurous strategy" because for Europe "aggressive Russia is certainly a threat, and its current regime deviates significantly from European values" and "this is the main reason why we want strong Atlantic relations".
However, the Greek expert continues, on the other hand, "crushing and marginalizing Russia is not in Europe's interest either", but "the existence of a strong Russia (as well as China) is the main counterbalance to the American global supremacy, for which the history of recent decades shows that it is very often not in in line with our interests and values".
Having cited a series of facts that show that Ukraine is "miles" or "decades" - as French President Emmanuel Macron said - far from meeting the criteria for admission to the EU, Walden writes that he believes it would be wrong for the EU's political message of support for Ukraine, which is necessary, include the "European perspective", and it would be even more wrong to include the formal status of the candidate.
This is primarily because the promise of candidate status would contribute to the further escalation of the conflict with Moscow in a very dangerous period, and in addition, Walden writes, the EU would foster the illusion that the solution to the Ukrainian problem is admission to the EU, and not that negotiations are the solution. and compromises with Russia.
As a third reason why promising Ukraine the status of a candidate for admission would be wrong, Volden states that "the EU would lose all credibility where the enlargement agenda makes sense - in the Western Balkans".
"We have been promising the integration of the Western Balkans for 22 years. There are no serious geopolitical obstacles to its implementation, those countries are small and more 'advanced' than Ukraine in terms of accession criteria. And yet, that process has dragged on for years, scandalously in the case of North Macedonia, mainly because of access fatigue' of large member states or the national ego of some others," states Walden.
And if Kiev were to be given what it is asking for from the EU, "the peoples of the Balkans would see how Ukraine is 'overtaking' them in flagrant violation of all the conditions that we have been using for years to delay their admission... while they remain on the waiting list", and "strong political message' to Ukraine was very wrong, both for the Balkans and for our credibility," warns the Greek professor.
"Our goal should be to end hostilities immediately, support Ukraine in difficult negotiations, begin the painstaking process of reversing the current Cold War dynamics and complete the expansion into the Balkans.
And of course the deepening of European integration", and "at the center of such a course is the construction of a new European security architecture that will include Russia".
"Only in such an environment - unfortunately now more distant than before, will we be able to deal with any European perspective of our eastern neighbors," writes Sotiris Volden, special advisor of the Greek Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).
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