Business games in London: The British apparently want to found a kind of “European Commonwealth” to compete with Brussels. The project hits the European Union in a sensitive area: How is it supposed to bind countries that are not yet ready to join it in the long term?
The President of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefantschuk speaks to the members of the European Parliament in the Strasbourg plenary hall to once again promote his country’s constitutionally enshrined state goal, the ardent desire to join the EU. But everyone in the hall knows that there is a high probability that most of them will never live to see this day, at least as MPs. Ukraine will not be able to join for years and is still a long way from meeting the EU’s requirements for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, the fight against corruption and economic efficiency.
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Now, of all people, Brexiteer Boris Johnson is promising the Ukrainians a European perspective, an alternative to endlessly waiting for open arms in Brussels. According to unanimous media reports, the British Prime Minister has offered them membership in a new confederation of states that is to gather around London as the “European Commonwealth”.
Italian media first reported on this presumably planned new community, which, in addition to Great Britain and Ukraine, should also include Poland and the Baltic States, and at a later date perhaps Turkey. The daily Corriere della Sera wrote that a Brussels-sceptical, anti-Russian alliance was being considered, an “alternative to the European Union”.
An EU diplomat in Brussels confirms that Johnson is promoting such a plan behind the scenes: “These efforts exist.” However, Johnson had encountered strong reservations, at least in Poland. Warsaw does not want to alienate its EU partners. Poland is a big beneficiary of EU funds.
In an interview with FOCUS Online, the FDP MEP Moritz Körner expressed doubts about the seriousness of Johnson’s project: “In the case of Mr Johnson, who no longer seems to be sitting too firmly in the saddle as Prime Minister, one can of course ask oneself in principle how seriously such an initiative should be taken at all.” The EU must nevertheless keep an eye on the background to the initiative: “Johnson quite obviously offered this to the Ukrainians when he recently visited Kyiv. This shows that the British have lag After Brexit, we realized that you can’t do it without a partner. Johnson is now trying to collect everyone who is not in the EU or who is dissatisfied there.”
Körner warns: “We have to fundamentally consider how we can bind countries that want to join us but are not yet ready to join us more closely to us. It remains to be seen which format is suitable for this. You could also further expand the existing structures such as the association models.”
In May, French President Emmanuel Macron presented ideas for a new model below EU membership, a “European political community”. In diplomatic circles in Brussels, Johnson’s move is seen as a direct response to this initiative. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, David McAllister (CDU), told FOCUS Online: “The European neighborhood policy should be reviewed in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The aim is to develop proposals as to how relations with candidate countries can be strengthened against the background of open military aggression in the heart of Europe. In this way, more intensive security and defense policy cooperation is conceivable.”
In an analysis, Barbara Lippert, EU enlargement expert at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), points out that previous instruments for bringing Ukraine closer to the European Union are currently out of the question. It is “like Georgia and Moldova in a precarious security situation, so that the rule of the last eastward enlargements – first NATO, then EU membership – will hardly be directly applicable.”
Austria’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has spoken out in favor of Ukraine’s “gradual integration” into the EU. He told the daily Die Welt: “The 27 EU countries could consult with representatives of the Western Balkans or Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia for two or three hours before the start of regular meetings. In this way, these countries could participate.” They would be “involved in specific questions, but the decisions are ultimately made by the EU countries”.
In his current book “Never Again Helpless!”, the CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen proposes “associated membership” in the EU for states that cannot yet fully belong to it. “The heads of government and states of these countries should take part in the meetings of the European Council, for example in an advisory capacity. It should also be possible for officials from the European Commission to be recruited from these countries.”
That would be a little more than a seat at the table, but it shouldn’t inspire the Ukrainians. They have repeatedly made it vehemently clear that they do not want to be fobbed off with a “light” membership. Their hopes are currently focused on the next EU summit on June 23-24. They expect him to grant their country candidate status for accession to the European Union. Everything else, including Johnson’s plan, probably appears more like a leftovers ramp in Ukrainian eyes.
