HS interview In an interview with HS, the President of the EU Commission draws the line for Vladimir Putin

Brussels

European the union may make a historic move this week: the EU is paving the way for a country at war to join the union.

At Thursday’s and Friday’s summit, the European Council, EU leaders are expected to approve the Commission’s proposal to give Ukraine candidate status for EU membership.

At the same time, Moldova is about to become a candidate for membership, and Georgia is getting a promise of membership.

“We must never give the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to define what the EU looks like and how we deal with our neighbors, ”says the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen says in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.

“We are determined to support Ukraine to maintain its independence. That is at the heart of the Commission’s political proposal, and I hope that the European Council will support it. “

Read more: EU Commission proposes official candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova – Finland intends to take a positive view

Commission the chairman will give interviews to groups of journalists from different countries on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont building. HS interviewed the President of the Commission together with five European newspapers.

“How would you survive the strike?” asks von der Leye first.

Strike-sensitive Brussels is once again in the morning, when the metro and buses run only partially and departures from the airport are suspended.

HS’s response to cycling makes von der Leyen praise its environmental friendliness and healthiness and regrets not being able to cycle on his own commutes. He lives in his workplace – on the same floor where we just sit.

At the summit The EU is taking a big step that is terrible for some Member States. Last week, the game began to be clear for at least the three largest countries, Germany, France and Italy, as their leaders sided with Ukraine as a candidate for membership in Kiev.

Read more: France, Germany, Romania and Italy want Ukraine to join the EU, the leaders of which visited Kiev

There has been a lot of political weight and pressure behind the memberships, but the summit is still not expected to be easy.

Finland is positive. There are many open questions, and one of them is money: Ukraine is big, poor and agricultural-intensive, and the cost of rebuilding it is in the hundreds of billions. Candidacy does not yet open up Ukraine’s access to EU funding programs, but the needs for the coming years are enormous.

The EU is already helping to make the country work.

“We friends and allies are rebuilding Ukraine. It is strategically important for us to have a functioning democracy next to the EU and not a collapsed state, ”says von der Leyen.

According to him, the Commission has made a proposal for a Reconstruction Forum, which would bring together partner countries and organizations that are already providing support. According to von der Leyen, good organization of reconstruction is important.

“There has to be a clear plan for that, and investing in Ukraine must also mean reforms. Then, in the second phase, it is up to the Member States and the European Parliament to ensure that European aid is financed. ”

Open there is also the question of whether the EU is ready for enlargement. Many countries are obsessed with Hungary’s use of its veto to lift EU sanctions on Russia and even remove the patriarch known as “Putin’s altar boy” Kirillin from the sanctions list.

Read more: Hungary expresses support for Russia by blocking sanctions on Patriarch Kirill, and EU can no longer turn a blind eye to Hungary’s behavior

Unanimity is now required for foreign policy decisions, but should it be abandoned if the Union is still growing? According to Von der Leyen, it should, and the Commission intends to pursue it.

“I think it would be important to move to qualified majority voting in the common foreign and security policy, because in today’s fast-changing world, a European voice is needed. It is sad to see that too often Europe is silent because we cannot find a consensus. ”

Von According to der Leyen, Ukraine has made significant progress in its reforms over the past eight years as it moves closer to the EU. He says he is impressed with how well the Ukrainian administration has performed in the “war stress test” down to the regional level.

“We want to see now that the reforms are starting to live. Laws must be put in place, corruption and oligarchs must be fought. The EU must now see results. “

The countries of the Western Balkans, Albania, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Serbia, Sanna Marin (sd) was visiting early in the week. The potential membership of the countries has been slow, and the threat is that Russia will increase its influence in the region as the EU delays.

Read more: Prime Minister Marin begins his visit to the Western Balkans: Montenegro and Northern Macedonia strongly support Finland’s NATO membership

Von der Leyen emphasizes that much is left of the candidate country.

“Turkey and Slovakia began the membership process in 1999. Five years later, Slovakia had done what was requested, with Turkey now more distant from the EU than it was at the time.”

Turkey, which is holding back Finland’s NATO membership, is still hanging in the EU candidate list, although the negotiations are virtually deadlocked. Intervals efforts must still be made to maintain it, as the EU reached an agreement with Turkey in 2016 that the country will not allow Syrian refugees to enter the EU and will receive support in return.

Candidates are likely to be confused by the French president Emmanuel Macronin proposal On the “European political community”, which could include non – EU countries. The current presidency’s proposal sounds more like a cold staircase than the EU’s lobby, and von der Leyen puts it:

“I look forward to a discussion at the summit to hear more details. But this will not replace the enlargement process or compete with enlargement. ”

Former German Defense Minister von der Leyen was a strange name for many when EU leaders elected him to lead the Commission in 2019.

Former prime ministers have usually been nominated as chairmen. After all, after the last European elections, one of the top candidates elected by the political groups in the European Parliament was to be appointed. In the parliamentary vote, von der Leyen’s appointment went through the bar.

The Von der Leyen Commission is now in the middle of its term. At the outset, the Commission’s number one goal was the European Green Deal.

It took a few months for Europe to be embroiled in a corona pandemic and for the Commission to become a crisis organization. The start did not go well when member states fought each other over supplies like face masks and panicked to close their borders. However, the Commission succeeded in procuring the vaccines jointly.

“

“Defending democracy comes at a price, and I know we ask a lot of people.”

Korona was followed by a joint stimulus package for EU countries decided in 2020. It broke taboos with joint borrowing, which in many countries took a toll.

Russian after the invasion of Ukraine, the EU responded with astonishing unity. The real test is yet to come.

Will citizens stay calm as inflation takes away purchasing power and electricity and gas bills increase? Or if next winter homes freeze?

“Defending democracy comes at a price, and I know we ask a lot of people. The EU is prepared to cut off gas supplies. I made a deal with the president Joe Biden LNG supplies, I went to Israel and Egypt to negotiate natural gas, and Norway will increase supplies to the EU. ”

According to Von der Leyen, in addition to alternative energy suppliers, EU countries need to learn to save energy and invest in renewable energy in Europe. All these actions are included in the Commission’s Repower EU proposal, in which the EU is desperately trying to stop blaming Russia for the euro.

Read more: Giant plan unveiled: EU plans to disengage Russia’s energy with more than € 200 billion in investment – that’s how it should be

The EU has imposed sanctions on coal and oil from Russia. Natural gas is missing from the sanctions list, and von der Leyen does not make any promises about it. Subsequent sanctions, according to him, will close the gaps and make corrections to the sanctions.

“It’s not very spectacular, but still very important.”

Russia may handle the cut-off of natural gas on behalf of the EU. On the morning of the interview, there are reports from Germany, France and Italy that gas supplies from Russia are faltering. According to Von der Leyen, this is a game of power, but the EU is prepared.

“Putin is trying to blackmail us. I believe that one day we look back, we can say that we have made the right decisions to invest in clean energy and get rid of Russia’s fossil energy. ”