© Lisa Leutner/AP.FILE PHOTO: Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg. Fast-tracking membership for Kiev would imply some candidates are "more equal than others," Alexander Schallenberg has warned.
Speaking on Politico's EU Confidential podcast, Schallenberg said that while he believes Ukraine and neighboring Moldova belong in the "European family," the EU must carefully consider its enlargement policy.
"We can't have Ukraine on the fast-track and the other countries on the service line. That will be a geostrategic disaster," the minister claimed. Referencing George Orwell's dystopian novel 'Animal Farm', Schallenberg stressed that the EU should avoid a system in which some countries "are more equal than others."
Comment: In some ways the EU is founded on a system where some are more equal than others, some benefit from the alliance more than others, such as the northern European nations.
The Austrian minister noted that the EU had promised membership to Western Balkan nations around 20 years ago, but had failed to deliver on that pledge. He urged Brussels to "put its money where its mouth is" and drop "binary thinking" about membership, suggesting candidate nations should be allowed some participation in EU deliberations and activities.
"We cannot wait. Because if we wait, we might lose these regions. We might lose Ukraine again... and the Western Balkans," Schallenberg warned. He added that if the EU could not prove its credibility in its own neighborhood, it would not be able to play any significant role globally.
Comment: It sounds like he's in support of expediting membership into the EU.
Ukraine declared its aspirations to join the EU as a national strategic goal several years ago, but only formally applied for membership in late February 2022, days after Russia launched its military campaign in the country. Moldova followed Ukraine a few days later, and both Kiev and Chisinau were granted EU candidate status in June of the same year.
However, EU officials have refused to set specific deadlines for Ukraine's accession, saying that it must address issues such as rampant corruption as well as introduce comprehensive legal reforms.
Moldova's membership bid has been complicated by the unresolved issue of its breakaway republic of Transnistria.
They stole from us the power to create wealth ... from nothing ... and now they wield that power against us to corrupt the world and set it upon its own destruction.
Let's hope the BRICS can build back better with mortar. The only thing the G7 builds with is dirty money and lies. A house of cards blowing in the wind.