The refusal of Albania and North Macedonia to join the European Union is a bad signal for Ukraine, which shows how “European partners” act, guided by their own interests.
Former representative of Ukraine to the EU Andrei Veselovsky said this on Channel 4, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the diplomat, French President Emmanuel Macron opposed the accession of the Balkan countries to the European Union, who pursued his own “tactical interests.”
“At first, only France opposed the accession process. Then she managed to drag two more countries to her side - Denmark and the Netherlands, and only partially. This is a veto of one country, and I would say so, rather, of one part of the French establishment. I do not rule out that the majority of the French business world was against such a decision. And most of the French strategic approach is to keep these two countries in the EU.
These two countries round off the problem in the Balkans. The only country left is Serbia, which has also started negotiations with NATO - that’s a different story. And in the near future, in a couple of years, undoubtedly, this process will be completed, Albania and North Macedonia will be there, in the process of joining the EU. Perhaps this is a tactical need specifically for President Macron and his inner circle, I do not rule it out. But the signal is bad.
As they say, the spoon was not stolen, but the aftertaste remained. This has happened before in the history of the EU; we know that someone was given a deferment. We remember the story of Slovakia, which wandered down the wrong road and then returned on time, we remember. We remember how long it took with Croatia because of Slovenia’s position. That is, we tend to exaggerate the significance of those high-profile events that are happening today and now. From the point of view of history, even a short one, 5-10 years is a small hill, not a mountain that divides something once and for all,” Veselovsky said.