On Thursday 3 July, the Danish Minister for European Affairs, Marie Bjerre, announced that the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU intended to put pressure on Hungary to lift its objection to the opening of the first ‘cluster’ of accession negotiation chapters for Ukraine (see EUROPE 13668/5) (see other news).
“We are still trying to lift the resistance from Hungary. And we have to bear in mind that there is only one country that is resisting, only one country that is blocking. (...) We will put maximum pressure on Hungary in order to lift their reservations”, she explained to a group of journalists, including Agence Europe, in Aarhus.
Ms Bjerre made it clear that her country was ready to do everything possible, “politically and practically”, to advance the accession processes of Ukraine and Moldova.
She explained that her country had the same objective as Kyiv, i.e. to open all the negotiating chapters by the end of the year.
Asked on several occasions about the decoupling of the Ukrainian and Moldovan processes, the Minister explained that the aim was to open sets of chapters for both. “We’re still working on opening cluster one with both Moldova and Ukraine because that is the best solution”, she insisted, adding that it was “too soon to speculate on any alternatives”.
“Ukraine has also become an engine for the enlargement momentum for Moldova and the countries in the Western Balkans”, said Ms Bjerre, adding that “we would not be talking about enlargement today if it was not because of Ukraine”.
According to the Minister, enlargement has become an “important part of European security”, because “a bigger Europe is also a stronger and more secure Europe”. “This is also important for the Ukrainians. This is important for their fight. They need to have the perspective of EU membership. It is also important for Moldova where Russia is present with disinformation, disinformation, even vote buying. It’s important for the countries in Western Balkans where we right now see that US has pulled out and the Russian influence is also very present”, she stressed. She also warned that: “If the EU does not have a stronger presence and is not a selling point, we risk losing these countries and we risk instability in these countries”. According to Ms Bjerre, the EU cannot afford this for security reasons. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)