EU candidate countries are under pressure from authoritarian players - ex-minister

RIGA - EU candidate countries are under pressure from authoritarian players not to join the EU, and first and foremost this pressure is coming from Russia, former interior minister Marija Golubeva, chairwoman of the Baltic Initiative for EU Reform, said at a conference on EU enlargement on Friday.

She noted that EU membership has been a historic opportunity for the Baltic states. It has enabled the strengthening of democratic institutions and the consolidation of a community of countries that see the rule of law and democracy as the basis for prosperity.

Golubeva pointed out that new countries hope to join this community, but the challenges seem almost insurmountable. Authoritarian forces want to keep or bring candidate countries back into their sphere of influence, she said, and one candidate, Ukraine, is currently fighting on its own territory to avoid being subjected to foreign influence.

In her view, in such circumstances, EU enlargement is no longer just a question of the regulatory framework, the technically complex accession process or the necessary reforms.

The second Baltic Conference on EU enlargement, organized by the think tank Baltic Initiative for EU Reform in cooperation with the Latvian Institute of Foreign Policy, takes place at the Riga School of Economics on Friday.