MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Ukraine is unlikely to be ever admitted to the European Union as this move will be faced with vehement resistance from the community members, Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, said in an interview with TASS.
"If Ukraine actually were a candidate for membership in a practical way, not just in a rhetorical way, it would probably face a huge opposition," he noted. "In Poland, for example, or in Hungary or in other Eastern European countries, where they would say, my God, Ukraine's going to compete with our farmers. Ukraine's going to compete with our other industries."
According to Sachs, "while the idea of Ukraine becoming an EU member has been a rallying cry for Europe for a long time, when it comes to practice, there will be a lot of resistance."
The same, in his words, applies to Moldova and other countries of the former Soviet Union and Western Balkans. "So in this sense, I shouldn't be glib about EU enlargement. The EU is in a very self-frustrated situation. There's a lot of dissension and opposition within Europe. And so it could be that any country that comes up for candidacy for EU membership maybe will be supported in theory, but when it comes to practice, will be opposed," he explained.
Five countries, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Turkey, are candidates for EU membership. The European Union also lists the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo among them. One of the criteria for the admission to the EU is that candidate countries must bring their foreign policies in full compliance with Brussel’s foreign policy, i.e. joint 100% of its foreign policy resolutions and statements where candidate countries have no say.