Durao doubts that peace will come in his lifetime, and defends Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO

Former European Commission President Durau Barroso admitted this Saturday that peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved in his lifetime and said he “strongly supports” that country’s membership in the European Union and NATO.

This Saturday, Durau Barroso gave a “class” at the PSD Summer University on “Europe and the World: Challenges and Perspectives” and one of the questions asked by the young participants of this political learning initiative was about their views on ending the war. in Ukraine.

“People often ask me how the war will end. And I answer with a question, who said that it will end? There may be negotiations – a truce is better than war – but I don’t see peace in the foreseeable future, maybe in your life, in mine I don’t see like that,” he said.

Durau Barroso felt that the European Union had better be prepared for a “long-term” conflict, noting that there are wars that last “decades”.

“I am strongly in favor of Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO, but this must be done reasonably and carefully. We cannot reduce the requirements for entry, otherwise it will cease to be the European Union,” he warned, adding that it is also necessary for the accession of countries that have waited the longest, such as the Balkans, could be expedited.

In Ukraine, this will also depend on the existence of at least a “truce” in the war with Russia.

“For example, 2030 is an interesting idea, but we should not be bound by any dates,” he said.

The timing of this accession will depend both on the capacity of the candidate countries, “as well as on the absorptive capacity” of the Union, which should use this time for internal reforms, the former prime minister said, recalling that: at present, amending treaties requires unanimity.

“We’ll have to change the rules if [a UE] increase the number of members from 27 to 35, and countries that do not accept will not cease to be members. Legal and institutional creativity is needed to integrate new members,” he said.

Durau Barroso recalled that it was during his tenure at the European Commission in 2014 that Russia invaded Crimea, and recounted what Russian President Vladimir Putin told him then.

“He said that it was not a real invasion -” there are Russians nearby “- and that if it were so, they would have managed to take Kiev in two weeks. That is, in his opinion, a conscious and unconscious desire to seize Ukraine,” he stressed.

Continuing the theme of the war, he praised how Europe remains united in support of Ukraine and noted that “inconceivable” steps have been taken, such as Finland’s, and soon Sweden’s, joining NATO, or acquiring European Union weapons and ammunition.

“Circumstances are changing, and what was impossible becomes necessary. That is the purpose of politics: to make possible what is necessary,” he defended.

To another question about the conditions for Turkey’s entry into the European Union, Durau Barroso gave a clear answer: “I don’t think I have the conditions for entry in the foreseeable future.”

“We are in a certain game of illusions, which neither Turkey nor the European Union believe in,” he said.

Asked if he foresaw the risks of more countries wanting to leave the European Union, the former prime minister said the UK’s exit “is more like a vaccine than a virus.”

“The way Brexit went did not encourage others to leave,” he said.