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EU project is over, its integration potential depleted, expert says

"If any new country joins it, at maximum, it could be Montenegro somewhere around 2030," Oleg Bondarenko noted

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. The European Union project is over; new countries are unlikely to join it, and current members would pick a more autonomous political course, says Oleg Bondarenko, director of the Progressive Politics Foundation.

"The main trend for the next 20 years: the European Union project is basically over. If any new country joins it, at maximum, it could be Montenegro somewhere around 2030," the expert said, speaking during a press conference at TASS.

According to Bondarenko, "the EU’s integrational potential seems to be already depleted" so "new bright, interesting actors will start coming into spotlight, who carry out a more active policy, not negotiated with Brussels, like Viktor Orban and Robert Fico do today."

On December 22, Prime Minister of Slovakia Fico made a working visit to Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin received him in the Kremlin. The two leaders talked behind closed doors. This is the first meeting between Putin and Fico since 2016.

The Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban visited Moscow in July, 2024. His meeting with Putin focused on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine and the restoration of the dialogue on a wide array of issues.