The EU Should Not ‘Lower the Bar’ to Welcome Ukraine, Moldova and Other Countries

“Denmark supports the accession of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia as well as West Balkan countries to the European Union, but “geopolitical circumstances” do not justify delaying the implementation of effective governance reforms”, Danish Finance Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said. “The EU risks “importing instability” if it loosens its democracy and anti-corruption rules to hasten the accession of Ukraine and other candidate countries”, Rasmussen told the FT. To join the EU, a country must bring its legislation in compliance with numerous European standards, starting from climate issues to labor standards. The process usually takes several years. Asked about Ukraine’s accession to the EU, Rasmussen said that the European Union should not ‘lower the bar’ but help Ukraine with investment and support, the FT reported. Although Ukraine had met two of the seven conditions for starting the EU accession process, a European official familiar with the EU recommendations for Ukraine said some key judicial reforms were needed. In 2019, the European Commission proposed to make changes in the system for accepting new countries to the EU to give more weight to existing members, after countries such as France and Denmark opposed EU enlargement to six Balkan countries. Rasmussen told the FT that Denmark had changed its position and that it was even open to internal EU reforms, including the abolishment of majority voting to admit new members.