The EU should focus on providing immediate assistance to Ukraine, rather than participating in a “legal debate” over whether to nominate the country as a candidate for membership, according to the Portuguese prime minister.
Antonio Costa said in an interview that candidate status – the beginning of a process of accession that will take many years – will not solve Ukraine’s urgent problems and risks creating “false expectations”. He fears the EU will only show its division on the issue by presenting a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His comments highlighted concerns in some EU capitals about granting Kyiv candidate status, despite requests from President Vladimir Zelensky, who sees the membership path as a guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty and an anchor for its restoration. EU leaders are due to decide on the issue at a summit in Brussels on June 23-24.
Costa supported the “European perspective” for Ukraine and did not explicitly oppose candidate status, saying he was awaiting an evaluation by the European Commission this week. But he said it was “essential to respond to the state of emergency in which Ukraine and the Ukrainian people live now.” Even if Ukraine receives candidate status, “the real problems remain to be solved,” he said.
“My focus is to get a clear commitment to the next European Council on emergency support and to build a long-term platform in support of Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he told the Financial Times in London. “This is my top priority. The most important thing is not the legal debate on Ukraine, but the practical supply.
“For this clear and immediate support, it is not necessary at this point to start negotiations or a procedure that will take many years.” [French president Emmanuel] Macron says decades, I don’t say decades, but certainly for a long time. The big risk is to create false expectations, which turn into bitter disappointment. Less legal debate, more practical solutions. “
Costa, a socialist, has been Prime Minister of Portugal since November 2015, making him the longest-running center-left government leader in Europe. In the January elections, his party won an absolute majority and no longer needs the support of two smaller far-left parties to rule. He has been highlighted as a potential future candidate for one of the top positions in the EU.
Costa said the unity the EU has demonstrated since Putin launched its full-scale invasion on February 24th has been a “defeat” for Moscow and is essential.
“The best support the European Union can give to Ukraine is to preserve its unity. The best we can offer is European unity.
Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s chairman, strongly advocated putting Ukraine on the first step towards membership, which the commission is expected to formally recommend on Friday. But EU capitals are divided. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the Dutch parliament last month that many EU members were opposed. Poland, the Baltic States and Italy are in favor.
Skeptics have said it would be unfair to give Ukraine an advantage over Georgia and Moldova. It would also raise questions about the status of Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey, whose bids have been blocked for many years, or Albania and northern Macedonia, with which negotiations have not yet begun.
Costa said the idea proposed by Macron last month for the European political community, a freer form of association for countries that do not want membership or do not meet the full entry criteria, “could be a good idea to solve many problems “.
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“We need to find different ways to be partners, allies and friends on the same continent,” he said.
Costa was in London to sign a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom aimed at boosting trade, investment and research co-operation. After Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, it was a “time to renew” relations between the two countries, which first signed a treaty of friendship in 1372.
He has repeatedly declined to comment on the UK government’s threat to repeal the protocol on trade with Northern Ireland, a crucial part of Britain’s Brexit deal with the EU, saying the commission’s role is to “negotiate” EU issues with London.
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