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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 14:28

Barroso: without EU enlargement, Russia would have gobbled up Bulgaria and Baltics

BC, Riga, 30.10.2014.Print version
Without the EU enlargement, Russia’s appetite, today, would not focus on Ukraine, but on Bulgaria and the Baltic states, outgoing Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters at his last press conference yesterday, cites LETA/EURACTIV.

Barroso, who was in office for two consecutive terms totaling ten years at the helm of the EU executive, made his last appearance in front of the news media, following the last College meeting he chaired, the 424th in a row.

 

One of the achievements of Barroso's time in office was EU enlargement, with 10 countries joining in 2004 (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta), Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and Croatia in 2013.

 

Asked if the enlargement of Bulgaria and Romania, which are still monitored by the Commissions seven years after their accession for deficiencies in their law-enforcement systems, was credible enough, Barroso strongly defended the decisions taken.

 

“For a minute, imagine that those countries had not joined the European Union. In that case, we would not probably be discussing only about Ukraine. We would probably be discussing now about Bulgaria, or about the Baltic states,” he said.

 

“So it was the right thing to do. Of course it was not perfect. But let me tell you very frankly – the problems we have in European integration in these years, were they because of Bulgaria and Romania? Of course not,” Barroso said.






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