EU enlargement report: praise and criticism
The EU Commission has presented its annual EU enlargement report, which assesses the progress made by the ten EU candidate countries in implementing reforms. Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine were commended for their efforts, whereas Georgia was criticised for regressing. Commentators look closer.
Kyiv did better than expected
European Pravda is amazed that Ukraine did so well in the report:
“The attempt in July to undermine the independence of the anti-corruption authorities, the allegations about attacks on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau as well as problems in the justice system all fuelled scepticism about what the EU's assessment would be. Against this backdrop, the European Commission's conclusions were unexpectedly optimistic. The report takes a more positive view of Ukraine's progress than it has done in the last three years - so since we were first included in the enlargement package. For the first time, European officials did not point to a single negotiating chapter in which Ukraine had not made progress in meeting the accession requirements.”
Take off the kid gloves
More criticism would be good for Ukrainian politics, political scientist Volodymyr Horbach writes on Facebook:
“This is not the first time, and probably not the last, that the European Commission and our other European partners have resorted to self-censorship in their public communications when it comes to assessing the work of the Ukrainian government. But this time the degree of self-restraint has decreased noticeably. It even went as far as to propose a personnel and systemic restructuring of an authority as weighty as the State Bureau of Investigation - the main power base of the President's Office. ... Objectively speaking, not all cases of abuse of power, and in particular corruption and oppression of the opposition, can be justified by citing wartime conditions. It's time to talk turkey here.”
EU needs to do its homework
Not only the candidate countries but also the EU must now prove that it is ready for further enlargement, writes Dnevnik:
“The European Union now has a lot of homework to do. It will have to answer the question of how it intends to remain capable of acting with new member states with its own reform process. It must convince a European public that is sceptical about enlargement that new members will strengthen the bloc – and not pose a threat to its own workforce. The enlargement marathon is entering its final phase. The final spurt will be even more tense than the first twenty years.”