Not only is Ukraine putting its survival and future at risk in the fight against the Russian invader, the EU also sees its own existence threatened. Nineteen months after the start of the Kremlin’s large-scale invasion, as certain tensions within the EU become visible and uncertainty increases due to Washington’s support, the High Representative for Foreign Policy and Defense Josep Borrell has assured Kiev that the Union is European support will continue to exist. And regardless of what happens in the counteroffensive of the Kiev troops. “The European Union, all of us, are facing an existential threat,” he warned this Sunday in Kiev in an interview with EL PAÍS.
Borrell’s message, which met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and several ministers, is not only aimed at Ukraine. It is also aimed at the Kremlin, which has just launched another wave of recruitment and is already preparing to step up its aggression this winter. “EU support does not depend on progress on the battlefield,” he said. This Monday, the Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-Seven will meet in the capital of the invaded country with their Ukrainian counterpart Dmitro Kuleba and the head of European diplomacy for a historic meeting intended to send a message of unity and strong support to the Kremlin.
The fear that the war is simmering and Ukraine is losing support is real. Borrell expressed concern about the agreement between Democrats and Republicans in the United States, who, to avoid a federal government shutdown, agreed on a temporary budget bill that excludes aid to Ukraine. “We are surprised by the last-minute decision, which we deeply regret,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy said at a meeting with the media in the Ukrainian capital. “Let’s hope it’s not the last word,” he said.
The support is not subject to Washington
Borrell emphasized that European support is not dependent on American support. Brussels hopes to push ahead with a new €20 billion package of military aid by 2027. This plan is part of the EU’s long-term security commitments to Ukraine and would mean 5 billion euros per year for arms and ammunition, one of the issues that will be on the table of the Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-seven at a highly symbolic meeting.
All this comes on the eve of what is expected to be a complicated winter and weeks before the European Commission publishes the report in which it will report on Ukraine’s (and other candidates’) progress on the reforms it needs not only to join the community club. , but to open accession talks. The Zelensky government hopes to open these negotiations this year. It will be a political decision, like granting EU candidate status. But Brussels insists there can be no shortcuts. For example, Ukraine must advance measures to ensure respect for the rule of law.
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Borrell arrives at the Kiev train station this Sunday in a photo distributed by the European Commission. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
“It is a challenge, the work that needs to be done in this adaptation process is great,” Borrell told this newspaper during a short walk through the historic center of Kiev, next to several destroyed Russian tanks that have become a symbol of resistance against the attacker became . “The EU has chosen Ukraine as a member of the community family and this is the best contribution to security obligations, participation in the economic cycles of the Western world and the integration of Ukraine into the West,” says the head of European diplomacy. who met this Sunday in Kiev – where he arrived after a visit to Odessa and its port attacked by Russia in recent days – with the new Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
Borrell’s visit comes at a crucial time, ahead of the summit in Granada, where the leaders of the twenty-seven will discuss enlargement on Friday, after meeting the leaders of the candidate countries at the European Politics meeting on Thursday have community. Although the crisis of Ukrainian grain, which enters the EU without tariffs and which was blocked by Poland and Slovakia, has revealed some cracks in Community support. Ukraine fears that the strong unity that the Union has maintained to support it will suffer.
The political landscape is also challenging for Kiev, with presidential elections next year in the United States and another Moscow submarine (what some believe to be Viktor Orban’s Hungary) in Slovakia, where pro-Russian populist Robert Fico has won the majority could in the elections this Saturday. Given the ghosts of these cracks in unity, Borrell emphasizes that the EU has unanimously adopted 11 sanctions packages against Russia since the start of the war, including reluctant member states such as Hungary. “The Europeans have shown tremendous unity, they have shown it to Russia and will continue to demonstrate it. The EU will not only continue to provide sustained support to Ukraine, but will also strengthen it,” he added.
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