The EU flag. File photoMOSCOW, Jul 2 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a revision of the EU's founding treaties amid fears that Ukraine's membership could shift the internal balance of power to the detriment of Berlin, the Telegraph newspaper reported, citing sources.
"Scholz wants the voting system to be changed to ensure that power blocs of EU countries cannot be formed in order to secure additional funds from their wealthy Western allies", the publication says. Scholz, the newspaper notes, also wants to get rid of the right of veto.
According to a diplomatic source, the chancellor raised this issue at the last meeting with European colleagues in Brussels and called for changing the treaties before Ukraine joins the EU. The newspaper recalls that in accordance with the current voting system, which takes into account the number of voting countries and their , Kyiv will receive nine percent of the votes in the EU Council. If Ukraine and Poland unite their votes, they will become «more powerful» than Germany, joining the Polish-Ukrainian tandem of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe will lead to the formation of a majority that will be «stronger» than France and Germany.
Medvedev called the assignment of the status of an EU candidate to Ukraine an operetta. According to media interlocutors, Portugal also doubts that Ukraine should be admitted to the EU because of the state of its economy. It is expected that in case of joining the European Union, the Ukrainian economy will be the weakest, then Lisbon will have to become a net contributor to the EU budget for the first time. The same fate awaits the Czech Republic. According to the publication, Kyiv nevertheless assured European countries that it would not deliberately try to create a power bloc within the EU. Last Friday, the heads of state and government of the EU at the summit in Brussels approved the granting of candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova to join the union . Those present also declared their readiness to assign candidate status to Georgia after fulfilling a number of conditions. Obtaining such a status is only the first step towards joining the European Union. Turkey was granted it in 1999, North Macedonia in 2005, Montenegro in 2010, and Serbia in 2012. Croatia was the last country to join the EU in 2013, and the process took ten years. to the question about guarantees to Ukraine