According to a UK outlet, Berlin plans to change EU voting laws so that Kiev is not able to use its potential leverage.
Germany worries that Ukraine will become an EU full member, Berlin may lose its power within the bloc, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday, citing a top diplomatic source.
Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, apparently discussed the matter with EU leaders in Brussels behind closed doors. According to the outlet’s source, he urged an overhaul of the EU treaty system before Ukraine’s membership bid is approved.
The EU voting system which takes into account the population and voting numbers of member countries is what concerns the most. It would allow Ukraine to have a significant influence within the bloc. Additionally, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs has found that Kiev, should it join the EU, would be not only the fifth-largest, but also its poorest member.
Also, it is possible for Kiev to join with Poland or other Eastern European nations in order to marginalize core EU countries like France and Germany.
“This would shift the balance of power within the EU further away from Germany and France more towards Central and Eastern Europe, where the countries, together with the Nordics, for the first time would become a more sizeable bloc in terms of voting power,”The Telegraph received Dr Nicolai von Ondarza’s statement from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
According to reports, Scholz is planning to make the EU voting system more modern so as to prevent different power factions from forming within the bloc. This would also help to stop their rich Western European counterparts getting extra money. Scholz is also keen to abolish national vetoes, according to the outlet.
Late June saw the EU grant Ukraine candidate status. It was widely considered a historic move. “symbolic” gesture amid the nation’s ongoing conflict with Russia.
“This does not mean that Ukraine will soon be part of the European Union. It is a process of many years with a lot of reforms which will be very difficult and, for us, it is very important to give a strong symbolic signal,”Alexander De Croo, the Belgian Prime Minister at that time, stated it.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president warned Kiev that EU membership may still be many decades away. It is important that Ukraine implements a series of anticorruption, democratic and economic reforms in order to keep the timeline on track.
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