BRUSSELS: Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia would be well advised not to apply for European Union membership now, because they would be rebuffed, the EU’s External Relations Commissioner said. Some of the 10 new members which joined the bloc last year, notably Poland, have argued the EU has a moral obligation to embrace ex-Soviet Ukraine, which tilted westward after a peaceful “orange revolution” last year.
But Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in an interview that other aspirants would be wise not to ask to be made candidates until they were sure they would get the answer they wanted. “The orange revolution has been a revolution where people have shown that they share our values,” she said.
“But now we have to get down to earth. Look at their economy: there are so many things that have to be changed. It’s a huge country, an important country, but they have to change the country and they know it very well.” She said the same applied to ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova, which, like Ukraine, have said they want to join the EU and have been encouraged by the fact that eight former communist countries joined last May.
The eight, which underwent years of painful reform before joining, are now prospering in the now 25-strong bloc. Romania and Bulgaria are next in line, Turkey and Croatia hope to start talks this year and the countries of the western Balkans are also waiting in the wings.
The aspirations of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova present the already-stretched EU with a major headache. The cure, Ferrero-Waldner said, is a delicate balancing act, offering some of the benefits of membership without the prospect of an eventual invitation to join.
“We want to make them friends. We want to bring them closer to the European Union by giving them a stake in our policies.”
TAILOR-MADE POLICIES: The bloc has drawn up a “European Neighbourhood Policy” covering its southern and eastern neighbours, from Morocco to Ukraine, and worked out separate policies with each one.
“What we want is a ring of friends with common values, where we know we want to promote our values but they also have an interest. It’s going away from dreaming about horizons (of membership) to coming to a very practical relationship.”
The EU is using its experience from last May’s enlargement to develop the neighbourhood policy, Ferrero-Waldner said.
“We use quite a lot of instruments which we had with the enlargement process. We offer exactly those instruments to the others. But they have to use them,” she said.
Central to the policy is that neighbours should tell the EU in which areas they want Brusssels to help them reform. For example, Ferrero-Waldner said, Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili has been very specific about her wish-list.
“She knows exactly what she wants. She wants a lot of border management, lots of security questions, and we have to tackle all these issues,” she said, referring to Georgia’s disputes with Moscow on borders and Russian troops in the country.
“We will be happy to do so but they also will have to take up our questions, and that is more democracy, more rule of law.”
She brushed aside concerns that the policy could end in disenchantment as neighbours sought movement towards the EU more quickly than Brussels could deliver.
“People always expect too much,” she said, urging them to be specific about what they want. “They have the chance to go to the tailor’s and say: “I want this size”.—Reuters
