Clear degradation: The EU is trying to change the criteria for Ukraine's accession

The EU countries are looking for ways to accelerate Ukraine's accession to the union. However, this will affect the fundamental principles of the EU, experts tell Izvestia. Some States propose to replace consensus decision—making with majority approval, while others propose to circumvent Budapest's veto. Earlier it was reported that Moldova may enter the first negotiation cluster with the union before Ukraine, despite the fact that their entry was planned at the same time. All this, in particular, was included in the agenda of the informal EU ministerial meeting on September 2 in Copenhagen. Whether it will be possible to reach an agreement within the association and what Donald Trump has to do with it is in the Izvestia article.

Copenhagen meeting: latest news

On September 2, ministers from all 27 EU countries have scheduled an informal meeting in Copenhagen. The issues of the rule of law in the EU and, moreover, increasing the level of its observance are on the agenda. The main focus is on the efforts of the EU candidate countries to adapt to the famous Copenhagen criteria, as well as the incentives that can accelerate it.

For example, Lithuania offered to start negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the EU without Hungary's consent. The idea provides for the technical launch of negotiations at the level of only 26 states. The problem for Brussels is that Hungary is going to block the opening of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, as previously stated by the country's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

The conflict between Budapest and Kiev, which is smoldering due to violations of the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians, has recently taken on new momentum. In just one month, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched several attacks on the infrastructure of the Druzhba oil pipeline on Russian territory. After that, oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia were temporarily suspended.

Hungary demands that Ukraine stop trying to draw it into a conflict with Russia and is already taking appropriate measures. According to Szijjarto, Budapest is imposing sanctions against AFU commander Robert Brovdi, who is considered responsible for the attack on the Druzhba oil pipeline. It is worth noting that, according to Ukrainian and Hungarian media, Brovdi is an ethnic Hungarian from Transcarpathia and commands the Forces of Ukraine's unmanned systems with the call sign Magyar. After that, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga said that Hungary allegedly found itself "on the wrong side of history" and promised to respond to the sanctions.

There are other ways to speed up Ukraine's entry. The media also reported that several EU countries were exploring possible ways to legally change the way they vote on foreign policy decisions within the union. It is worth noting that the fundamental principle of the association is decision—making by voting of all members of the organization. And this is a standard procedure that exists in all international structures of this kind. Accordingly, the idea of replacing consensus voting with a majority decision violates not only the principles of equality of EU member states, but also the principles of sovereignty, Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of Politics and History of Moscow State University, tells Izvestia.

— And, of course, this has nothing to do with the principles of international law, that is, all those fundamental principles that the European Union boasts so much about. It turns out that the opinion of one of the EU countries is insignificant for unification. And this is absolutely wrong from the point of view of the democratic principles of the existence of international organizations. But we see that the situation is changing, and the West, for the sake of its geopolitical interests, may violate its own rules," he says.

It is possible that Brussels may take this step to hurt Russia with its willingness to sacrifice its own principles for Ukraine. However, we recall that Russia considers Ukraine's possible membership in NATO, not in the European Union, to be a threat to its security.

— As for Ukraine's membership in the EU, we have never objected to this. As for NATO, this is another issue, here we are talking about ensuring the security of the Russian Federation, and not only today," Vladimir Putin said on September 2 at a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in China.

Can Ukraine and Moldova join the EU at the same time

It is important to note that earlier Ukraine's European integration was considered in a package format, that is, together with Moldova. But, since the consent of all EU members is necessary to start accession negotiations, they began to think about how to separate Kiev and Chisinau. This, at least, will accelerate the European integration of the second. Moreover, the first EU–Moldova summit has already been held on July 4. Romanian President Nicusor Dan said at the time that a decision would be made at the meeting in Chisinau to open the first negotiating cluster on the country's accession to the EU. However, there are those who disagree. On September 2, Denmark opposed Moldova's priority.

At the same time, Ukraine's accession process is being delayed, and not only because of the position of specific member countries. The state of domestic politics is still too far from the European "benchmark": what is the scandal about Kiev's failed attempt to limit the powers of the anti-corruption bodies NABU and SAP, created by the European Union, among others.

The issue of joining the EU is related to Ukraine's security guarantees, the coordination of which is also stalling. The United States has long wanted to shift responsibility for this to Europe. For example, earlier Donald Trump insisted on increasing the defense spending of NATO member countries to 5% of GDP. The US President also proposed a scheme according to which European countries would pay for American weapons for the Armed Forces. Accordingly, forcing Ukraine's accession to the EU is also a guarantee of ensuring its security by the countries of the association.

Against this background, the media reported that Trump allegedly convinced Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to change his position on Ukraine's accession to the union. So, according to Politico, the decision to open a negotiation cluster for EU membership may now be made in the near future.

However, the probability of Ukraine and Moldova joining the union is low, even though this is a desirable goal for the European bureaucracy, says Vladimir Shapovalov.

— There is a growing wave of discontent in the European Union. And Hungary is far from the only country that opposes it. A significant part of the population of EU countries and political elites already understand the disastrous nature of this path and that Ukraine and Moldova, the poorest countries in Europe, are a very serious burden for the European Union, which this organization simply cannot cope with," he says.

It is worth emphasizing that a total of nine States have candidate status. Among them are a number of Balkan countries — Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro. In addition, this status has been granted to Georgia, as well as Turkey, which has been awaiting accession since 1999. Kosovo is also considered a potential candidate, but Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Cyprus and Greece do not recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed republic.