Slovenia offers strong support to Ukraine for EU candidate status
STA, 16 June 2022 – At a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Thursday, Prime Minister Robert Golob expressed Slovenia’s support for granting Ukraine candidate status for EU membership. He emphasized the importance of EU unity in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I expressed Slovenia’s support for Ukraine to receive candidate status. We confirmed this at yesterday’s government session and I said this very clearly,” Golob told reporters after meeting with von der Leyen.
Golob expects the Commission to give a positive opinion on granting EU candidate status when it announces its position on Friday.
He acknowledged that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are directly threatened. “However, things can turn around quickly and sometimes it is better to act preventively. In Slovenia, we believe that the Western Balkans is a region that deserves a strong and ambitious European policy,” he said.
He said that Slovenia did not link the process of granting EU candidate status to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova with the Western Balkans. However, “we would not want this region to be overlooked,” said Golob, who is in Brussels on her first official trip abroad since his government was sworn in on June 1st.
Slovenia does not intend to set any conditions for Ukraine to receive candidate status, he said.
He emphasized the need for EU unity in its response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. There is already unity on the need to support Ukraine and the inadmissibility of the Russian invasion.
“We have to work on that. Everything else is just nuances,” Golob said of differing views on the response to Russian aggression emerging in Europe. One position advocates the start of peace talks as soon as possible, while the other warns against giving in to Russia.
In Slovenia, too, the views are different and two groups of eminent personalities addressed a letter to the government, in which they presented their views. The positions will be discussed in the National Assembly.
Golob said the talks were the only way out of the conflict. “Every war ends at the negotiating table. Peace talks do not mean acknowledging victory to the aggressor,” he said.
Regarding Slovenia’s further support for Ukraine, he said that Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, as they discussed on Wednesday, did not ask him about weapons, but about whether Slovenia could help with demining.
“Let’s help where we can help and where help is wanted, and that’s our position,” he said. He also mentioned assistance in receiving refugees, patients and providing humanitarian aid.
He also talked about this with the European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič. In a Twitter post, Lenarčič welcomed “the reaffirmation of Slovenia’s commitment to fundamental values and the core of the EU”.
Golob told reporters that the elections on April 24 marked an important turning point in Slovenian foreign policy. “For us, Europe comes first. Slovenia has always been a core EU country and will remain so. And that is our basic message,” he said.
Golob will conclude his first visit to the EU institutions on Friday with a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel. He is scheduled to meet this morning with representatives of the Renew political group in the European Parliament.