Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has slammed the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU, lambasting the country as massively “corrupt.”
“Anyone who has had anything to do with Ukraine knows that this is a country that is corrupt at all levels of society. Despite its efforts, it is not ready for accession; it needs massive internal reform processes,” Juncker said during an interview with German outlet Augsburger Allgemeine published Thursday.
“Making false promises” to Ukrainians regarding EU accession “would be neither good for the EU nor for Ukraine,” added Juncker, who was boss at the Berlaymont in Brussels from 2014 to 2019.
“You shouldn’t make false promises to the people in Ukraine who are up to their necks in suffering,” Juncker said. “I am very angry about some voices in Europe who are telling Ukrainians that they can become members immediately.” Kyiv has been fending off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion which began in February 2022.
EU membership for aspirant countries like Ukraine and Moldova must be connected to “internal reforms” and be backed by a “qualified majority,” Juncker argued. Ukraine has faced questions for years over its track record on fighting corruption.
Current European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council boss Charles Michel are both much more bullish than Juncker on Ukraine’s accession to the bloc.
On Tuesday, POLITICO reported that the EU is gearing up to open negotiations with Ukraine on its future accession with a formal announcement expected as soon as December, according to three diplomats.
During German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Kyiv on Tuesday — part of the first-ever informal meeting of EU foreign ministers outside of the bloc — she underlined that “the future of Ukraine lies in the European Union. In our community of freedom, which will stretch from Lisbon to Luhansk.” In September, Baerbock also noted on a trip to Kyiv that Ukraine needed to do more to root out corruption.
Von der Leyen has been positive on Ukraine’s case for membership and pushed for an expanded European Union of 30 countries during her State of the Union speech in September.
In August, two high-ranking Ukrainian officials were named as suspects in an embezzlement scheme involving the procurement of humanitarian aid, while then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov came under fire in January over a military catering contract.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been leading the anti-corruption crackdown in Ukraine, has been criticized for his decision to equate corruption with treason, which officials and watchdogs have warned would give more power to the state security service.
“We have had bad experiences with some so-called new members, for example when it comes to the rule of law,” Juncker said. “This cannot be repeated again.”
[deleted]
yeah corruption is just poison. but for some reason everyone about the phrase 2030 pretends that they don’t hear the second part of this phrase and the names of the good development of events (that is, to be good boys and did all the reforms) didn’t make reforms, then everyone is going to hell, they will make reforms, they have no choice put the population on call if they do not carry out reforms. Well, I wouldn’t hear about corruption from a man who helped corrupt people avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.
He ain’t wrong.
Still no one’s talking about Zelensky and his friends being mentioned in the Panama papers
He’s not wrong. I’m glad we’re supplying them with aid because fuck Putin but don’t think for a second that they won’t be another Poland/Hungary if they enter the EU
And, also every other country. Lets go over those panama papers, and every other paper that was leaked. But yeah, ukraine is super corrupt. Gonna get worse ofc, too many billions floating arround. People are naive and think no way these politicians wouldnt steal in the middle of the war. Wartime profiteering is a thing folks
I am shocked.
/s
Well,he should be able to recognise corruption…
Isn’t this the guy who was drunk at every other meeting and didn’t even bother to get sober for photos?
He’s not wrong, but Ukraine is also the victim of brutal war.
And he knows because he’s collected bribes from everyone?
and thy sky is blue. whats next, putin is a dictator?
Remember when if you said this you were downvoted into oblivion?
I miss him.
And also: yeah, no shit. Not like it would be the only country in the accession list or among those who have joined the EU this millenium to have this problem
oh no, do not say that! redditors will be unhappy to hear some truth.
“We have had bad experiences with some so-called new members”
Pretty sick burn on East Germany there.
> “I am very angry about some voices in Europe who are telling Ukrainians that they can become members immediately.”
Who even are these “voices” that are saying this? It seems to me like he is aggressively attacking a straw man in order to appear strong and wise. Sure, there might be “some voices” actually saying it, but do they have any clout that legitimately needs to be countered?
No Sherlock shit!
Just for context, Hungary is ahead of Ukraine but behind South Africa on the Corruption Index.
Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, while it was as corrupt as it gets. With years of striving to become successful and EU laws that actually work, corruption became almost non-existant issue in most layers of society. Two decades passed and paying bribes is unfathomable, disgusting, pathetic, disrespectful.
Ukraine was corrupt because of russia. Its how russia projects influence. Corruption today works from inertia and lack of control resources. With EU laws and pressure to blend in with europe Ukraine could make huge progress. It may take years for UA to join, but it cannot be decades
They’re fighting the good fight and deserve our support. But they’re in no way ready to join the EU. That would be a mistake.
Sure, but also enabling tax avoidance is totally not corruption.
I bet Ukraine is already miles ahead of Poland or Hungary.
you know, politico being shit is just a given.
but redditors repeating their clickbait title isnt making it better yall.
this is not even clickbait, its straight up fake news, any idiot with 2 functioning braincells knows juncker would never phrase or mean it like that. making it look like a direct quote just speaks to the low level of journalistic work we have at hand.
think of juncker what you want, but politico and u/river-beaver can go shove something up their behinds.
I would advise anyone who can to just read the german original article that politico is leeching off of.
So is he and eu parlement
I suspect Junker has been looking too deep into his glass again…
Well they didn’t deserve to be invaded.
While true, I notice that people in other “more developed” countries seem to underestimate their own level of corruption. Probably because they do indeed have significantly lower level of casual corruption, so it’s harder to actually notice the more organized kind. Us, Ukrainians, always admitting to our country being corrupt also didn’t help with perception of us being corrupt. Which is, again, true, but doesn’t leave the room to nuance and allows to casually dismiss a lot of things.
Anyway, discussion around EU ascension is a huge political theater and drama generator. Given that it literally requires all member states to agree, I don’t see at all how there could be a realistic way for Ukraine to become a part of the EU in the near future, even without corruption existing as a convenient reason to dismiss anything else. Maybe in a decade it should be again something to be discussed (and probably only discussed). Partly because corruption levels would indeed reduce thanks to gradual deaths of the older generations. In my personal experience, older generations significantly more prone to corruption, while lacking self-awareness that what they do is indeed corruption, while simultaneously bashing politicians for being corrupt and themselves being no different in that regard.
p.s. I should probably note that by older generations I meant people that at the very least spent significant part of growing up in the USSR.
The horrors of the war: having to admit juncker Is right on something. You see what you made me do?? Lets stop this madness guys, can’t stand It anymore…
What isn’t
Hot take: every country is corrupt in varying levels.
33 comments
Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has slammed the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU, lambasting the country as massively “corrupt.”
“Anyone who has had anything to do with Ukraine knows that this is a country that is corrupt at all levels of society. Despite its efforts, it is not ready for accession; it needs massive internal reform processes,” Juncker said during an interview with German outlet Augsburger Allgemeine published Thursday.
“Making false promises” to Ukrainians regarding EU accession “would be neither good for the EU nor for Ukraine,” added Juncker, who was boss at the Berlaymont in Brussels from 2014 to 2019.
“You shouldn’t make false promises to the people in Ukraine who are up to their necks in suffering,” Juncker said. “I am very angry about some voices in Europe who are telling Ukrainians that they can become members immediately.” Kyiv has been fending off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion which began in February 2022.
EU membership for aspirant countries like Ukraine and Moldova must be connected to “internal reforms” and be backed by a “qualified majority,” Juncker argued. Ukraine has faced questions for years over its track record on fighting corruption.
Current European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council boss Charles Michel are both much more bullish than Juncker on Ukraine’s accession to the bloc.
On Tuesday, POLITICO reported that the EU is gearing up to open negotiations with Ukraine on its future accession with a formal announcement expected as soon as December, according to three diplomats.
During German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Kyiv on Tuesday — part of the first-ever informal meeting of EU foreign ministers outside of the bloc — she underlined that “the future of Ukraine lies in the European Union. In our community of freedom, which will stretch from Lisbon to Luhansk.” In September, Baerbock also noted on a trip to Kyiv that Ukraine needed to do more to root out corruption.
Von der Leyen has been positive on Ukraine’s case for membership and pushed for an expanded European Union of 30 countries during her State of the Union speech in September.
In August, two high-ranking Ukrainian officials were named as suspects in an embezzlement scheme involving the procurement of humanitarian aid, while then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov came under fire in January over a military catering contract.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been leading the anti-corruption crackdown in Ukraine, has been criticized for his decision to equate corruption with treason, which officials and watchdogs have warned would give more power to the state security service.
“We have had bad experiences with some so-called new members, for example when it comes to the rule of law,” Juncker said. “This cannot be repeated again.”
[deleted]
yeah corruption is just poison. but for some reason everyone about the phrase 2030 pretends that they don’t hear the second part of this phrase and the names of the good development of events (that is, to be good boys and did all the reforms) didn’t make reforms, then everyone is going to hell, they will make reforms, they have no choice put the population on call if they do not carry out reforms. Well, I wouldn’t hear about corruption from a man who helped corrupt people avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.
He ain’t wrong.
Still no one’s talking about Zelensky and his friends being mentioned in the Panama papers
He’s not wrong. I’m glad we’re supplying them with aid because fuck Putin but don’t think for a second that they won’t be another Poland/Hungary if they enter the EU
And, also every other country. Lets go over those panama papers, and every other paper that was leaked. But yeah, ukraine is super corrupt. Gonna get worse ofc, too many billions floating arround. People are naive and think no way these politicians wouldnt steal in the middle of the war. Wartime profiteering is a thing folks
I am shocked.
/s
Well,he should be able to recognise corruption…
Isn’t this the guy who was drunk at every other meeting and didn’t even bother to get sober for photos?
He’s not wrong, but Ukraine is also the victim of brutal war.
And he knows because he’s collected bribes from everyone?
and thy sky is blue. whats next, putin is a dictator?
Remember when if you said this you were downvoted into oblivion?
I miss him.
And also: yeah, no shit. Not like it would be the only country in the accession list or among those who have joined the EU this millenium to have this problem
oh no, do not say that! redditors will be unhappy to hear some truth.
“We have had bad experiences with some so-called new members”
Pretty sick burn on East Germany there.
> “I am very angry about some voices in Europe who are telling Ukrainians that they can become members immediately.”
Who even are these “voices” that are saying this? It seems to me like he is aggressively attacking a straw man in order to appear strong and wise. Sure, there might be “some voices” actually saying it, but do they have any clout that legitimately needs to be countered?
No Sherlock shit!
Just for context, Hungary is ahead of Ukraine but behind South Africa on the Corruption Index.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022
Pretty much
Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, while it was as corrupt as it gets. With years of striving to become successful and EU laws that actually work, corruption became almost non-existant issue in most layers of society. Two decades passed and paying bribes is unfathomable, disgusting, pathetic, disrespectful.
Ukraine was corrupt because of russia. Its how russia projects influence. Corruption today works from inertia and lack of control resources. With EU laws and pressure to blend in with europe Ukraine could make huge progress. It may take years for UA to join, but it cannot be decades
They’re fighting the good fight and deserve our support. But they’re in no way ready to join the EU. That would be a mistake.
Sure, but also enabling tax avoidance is totally not corruption.
I bet Ukraine is already miles ahead of Poland or Hungary.
you know, politico being shit is just a given.
but redditors repeating their clickbait title isnt making it better yall.
this is not even clickbait, its straight up fake news, any idiot with 2 functioning braincells knows juncker would never phrase or mean it like that. making it look like a direct quote just speaks to the low level of journalistic work we have at hand.
think of juncker what you want, but politico and u/river-beaver can go shove something up their behinds.
I would advise anyone who can to just read the german original article that politico is leeching off of.
So is he and eu parlement
I suspect Junker has been looking too deep into his glass again…
Well they didn’t deserve to be invaded.
While true, I notice that people in other “more developed” countries seem to underestimate their own level of corruption. Probably because they do indeed have significantly lower level of casual corruption, so it’s harder to actually notice the more organized kind. Us, Ukrainians, always admitting to our country being corrupt also didn’t help with perception of us being corrupt. Which is, again, true, but doesn’t leave the room to nuance and allows to casually dismiss a lot of things.
Anyway, discussion around EU ascension is a huge political theater and drama generator. Given that it literally requires all member states to agree, I don’t see at all how there could be a realistic way for Ukraine to become a part of the EU in the near future, even without corruption existing as a convenient reason to dismiss anything else. Maybe in a decade it should be again something to be discussed (and probably only discussed). Partly because corruption levels would indeed reduce thanks to gradual deaths of the older generations. In my personal experience, older generations significantly more prone to corruption, while lacking self-awareness that what they do is indeed corruption, while simultaneously bashing politicians for being corrupt and themselves being no different in that regard.
p.s. I should probably note that by older generations I meant people that at the very least spent significant part of growing up in the USSR.
The horrors of the war: having to admit juncker Is right on something. You see what you made me do?? Lets stop this madness guys, can’t stand It anymore…
What isn’t
Hot take: every country is corrupt in varying levels.