Yes to Accession Negotiations with Ukraine
Paneuropa President Karl von Habsburg: The EU must finally become a geopolitical actor.
In view of the upcoming European Council, which will address, among other things, the core question of whether the EU wants to act as an independent geopolitical actor or if it will continue to content itself with pleasant-sounding but empty slogans, Paneuropa Austria issues a clear commitment to the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine and to the strategically important EU integration of the Western Balkan countries.
“Anyone who seriously examines the security situation in Europe will conclude that the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine is in both parties’ interest,” says Karl von Habsburg, President of the Paneuropean Movement Austria. He adds that this concerns security and stability in Europe. “We all know that negotiations are not yet accession,” Habsburg states, “and that Ukraine also has a series of reform steps ahead of it to be able to join at all.”
For Ukraine, candidate status and the opening of accession negotiations are a motivation both for the necessary further reform steps and for the fight for freedom and independence, which is also a fight for freedom and independence for the whole of Europe. “And it is a signal to Putin’s criminal regime that Europe will not be intimidated by war crimes.”
For the EU, preparing Ukraine for accession is a gain for security, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe. Because: the further east we push the boundaries of freedom, the safer the centre becomes (a slogan of the former Paneuropa President Otto von Habsburg from the period after the fall of the Iron Curtain, which remains valid today). It will also be necessary for the EU to take reform steps to bring the common goals of a Europe of freedom, security, and law back to the forefront, and to push national egoisms into the background.
Paneuropa strongly rejects attempts to play off the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine against the necessary integration of the six Western Balkan countries into the EU. “Anyone who acts in this way is at most trying to conceal their own failures on the path to EU integration for the Western Balkan countries, to whom accession was already promised at the Thessaloniki summit 20 years ago,” says Karl von Habsburg.
Paneuropa Austria also advocates for sending even stronger military support to Ukraine, and doing so quickly. “Any hesitation in delivering modern combat technology, with which Ukraine can achieve technological superiority on the battlefield, costs human lives. Both in Ukraine and in Russia,” condemns the Paneuropa President, referring to the inhumane cynicism behind the hesitant stance that only prolongs the war. “No European head of government can have an interest in Russian troops standing on the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, or Romania.”
Note: The security situation in Europe and the necessary strengthening of a genuine European foreign and security policy will also be key themes of the “Speech on the Future of Europe” that Karl von Habsburg will deliver on 11 January 2024.
