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Ukraine 'light years away' from joining EU, says Hungarian PM Viktor Orban
(www.euronews.com)
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As we all know, Orban is very connected with the standards and values of the EU, and definitely hasn't screwed his country out of billions in EU assistance because of his authoritarian regime.
Wouldn't say Ukraine is highly connected with the standards and values of the EU either, though.
They've made great strides in the past few years. EU integration was a key demand during the Euromaidan protests, after all, and Zelenskyy ran on a platform of anti-corruption and EU integration.
Absolutely, only time will tell if it sticks though. Forgive me for being sceptic.
Oh, no, I understand, skepticism is probably a good position to have. Wouldn't want another Hungarian-style administration to worm its way in to the EU; one is already too many. Or another Poland-style under PiS.
We need a multi tiered EU. The core bloc of Western Europe should consolidate further, and drop the eastern contrarians down to accession tier without voting rights. That way the big players can further European integration without having to pay attention to the populist obstructionists who bitch and moan over everything unless they get their way in the process.
Not every Eastern European country is like Hungary though... In fact it's only Hungary, now that Poland's getting a new government.
Also it's not like Western Europe's free of populists either.
Slovakia's also getting a new government...
Im not saying that any eastern member should be put in b-tier, but they should generally have a pro European stance by not electing right wing populists based on anti EU rhetoric and policymaking.
Of course im not asking for preferential treatment for the west, if any country fails to meet those criteria the mechanism should also halt their voting rights.
There are currently too many ways for any single party to prevent the whole bloc from acting, even if everyone else is in favor or against.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy
We might have to tolerate some ambiguities.