07 Mar

Ukraine’s EU accession: Opportunity for Europe, major test for Kyiv

Ukraine is striving for European Union membership, aiming to open additional negotiation clusters this year. Experts argue that its accession could not only strengthen Central and Eastern Europe but also drive reforms within the EU itself.

By Aleksandra Krzysztoszek, Euractiv.pl

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If you do not want to overburden the member states you must adjust the big spending fields. (Pixabay)

It is not about bias against any country but about the independence of European judicial systems, about if they deal fairly with cases filed, says German MEP JENS GEIER about the rule of law conditionality as regards the next EU budget, that faces outrage namely in V4 countries.

V. Putin visiting Hungary in 2017 (EPA/Alexei Druzhinin)

There was a time when Kiev perceived the Visegrad Group as an „advocate” of the Ukrainian case in the EU. Today, it prefers to pursue relations with them on a more bilateral basis, in an interview says Jurij Panczenko, expert of Ukrainian portal “European Pravda”.

Montenegro. (Pixabay)

All Visegrad Group countries declare their commitment to the enlargement of the EU and NATO, with a unanimous focus on integrating Western Balkan (WB) countries. This unanimity fades in relation to Kosovo, although according to Péter Szijjártó, a Hungarian MFA, “The more members we [the EU] have, the stronger we are”.

Angela Merkel at the meeting of V4+ in Bratislava. (TASR/Martin Baumann)

The fear in Berlin that the V4 acting as a blocking minority on more European policy dossiers has softened. Instead, German policy-makers and analysts are trying to identify common ground between Germany and the V4, while at the same time doing justice to existing national differences, writes Anna-Lena Kirch from the Hertie School of governance.

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