The EU defends itself

This function is conducted by “Eastern partnership” projects

 “If Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine become members of the European Union, the EU will become worse. It will become like the Council of Europe, where there are many nations, many countries represented, yet there is no real cooperation. If suddenly it turns out that the countries I mentioned become the EU members, I hope Germany, France, the Czech Republic and other real members of the union, will create a new European Union”,  shared his thoughts Czech analyst, member of the International Relations Association Council Vaclav Nekvapil in the exclusive interview given to “Aravot” speaking of the countries’ that are involved in the EU “Eastern Partnership” project prospect of becoming EU members. Our interlocutor was in Armenia, because of the seminar jointly organized by the “Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation” and the embassy of the Czech Republic in the RA and Georgia, which aimed at presenting the EU membership experience of the Czech Republic. In response to the question, whether “the Eastern Partnership” projects turn out to be meaningless in that case, since, according to you, the EU actually has more of an issue of defending itself from those states, than really cooperating with them, “Aravot’s” interlocutor said, “These projects does not generally aim at gaining members of the EU, their aim is to have stable and predictive neighbors, where there will be no danger of war. The states that cooperate within the framework of these projects were officially told that these were the preparation projects for membership. Through these projects the given states and citizens will become Europeans, if, of course, they want to, but they will never become EU members.” I noted that these projects were called “The European Neighborhood” at first, and then “The Eastern Partnership”, because of the absence of a desire to really cooperate. The programs prospects arouse the excitement of these countries, however the project’s name itself tells that one is a neighbor or a partner, i.e. he will not be a member. Both countries that have chances of becoming EU member and countries that do not have those chances are involved in all the projects of “The Eastern Partnership”. And it is not important whether they border directly on the EU or not. All the projects of “The Eastern Partnership” are aimed at bringing the given countries as close to Europe as possible. And whether those countries will join the EU or not, only future will tell”, responded Vaclav Nekvapil.

We also inquired why the EU closed its doors to Turkey time and time again.  Mr. Nekvapil expressed a notion that in Turkey’s case the issue is only economic. Every country gives certain amount of money to the EU and receives a certain amount. For example, at the moment the Czech Republic receives more, than it pays. It depends on the income of the given country, its population and a bunch of other factors. When Romania and Bulgaria became the members of the EU, the balance was already disrupted and if Turkey collectively joins the EU, according to our interlocutor, that country will take more money from the EU in all aspects, industry, agriculture, culture etc., than it will pay. Therefore, in this case a dilemma arises among “the real Europeans”. As a result, the EU doors are yet closed to Turkey. As to the South Caucasus, our interlocutor speaks of those countries’ prospects to join the EU with a significant smile; he equates such a scenario to the science fiction, since there are many unsettled conflicts in the region, the NKR issue, the Armenian-Turkish closed borders, Abkhazia, South Ossetia etc. However, according to him, these do not limit other opportunities of the South Caucasian countries. For example, those countries are free to negotiate apart from each other on simplifying the visa system or creating visa-free system.

By the way, everybody and everywhere preaches the European values that are very good, everyone praises Europe, is willing to be part of it. Is the EU a combination of positive things – are there not any negative things in the EU? “There is one negative thing for sure; you lose part of your sovereignty. However, you do it voluntarily and the issue here is not the loss of the sovereignty that for example Armenia suffered to become a member of the USSR. There are things that the state cannot do alone, e.g. declare a war on any other state. But the loss of that sovereignty gives you an opportunity to participate in making decisions along with the others and really participate”, said the Czech analyst.