the EU budget Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, makes up for the accession of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union within the next decade. “Europe was, is, and remains, first and foremost, the peace Union,” said Oettinger in Berlin on Monday, in a speech at the Bertelsmann Foundation. The EU accession of six countries of the Western Balkans is currently being treated as “taboo”, but “the logical conclusion”, said the CDU-politician, with a view to Serbia, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Only a few years after the Second world war, Germany had, at the time, “never”, the recording in the precursor organization of the EU deserves, said Oettinger. Now it was Germany to make gifts. The EU had not in the past, the countries of Eastern Europe, would be exposed to the influence of Russia.
Oettinger has campaigned for a high turnout at the European elections on may 26. May. “A European choice, we must be just as important as a Federal election,” he said. Only a high turnout would reduce the expected gains of the populists.
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The Europeans lived in a “battle of systems”, said Oettinger. The liberal societies of the separation of powers, independent courts, fundamental freedoms and the social market economy were under pressure. In contrast, the Europeans need to stand together, against Islamism, against autocracies in Ankara and Moscow. “And also from the White house tweet autocrats around the clock,” said Oettinger in a nod to U.S. President Donald Trump. (dpa)
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