Intentional construct about the negotiations of Ukraine and Moldova with the EU

A Facebook post, responding negatively to the fact that Ukraine and Moldova received recommendations for starting EU accession talks, expresses mixed: personal opinions, which the author is fully entitled to express; some undisputable facts, which, of course, are legitimate; but also tendentious silence thereby depriving the public of the entire context of the situation; and even blatant lies that the author tries to insert alongside the legitimate content.

 

A post on the social network Facebook says the following: 

This is an indicator that NO membership criteria exist in these satanic organizations (nato and eu) 

Later adding the following: 

The only thing they haven’t asked us to do in those damn negotiations is to denounce our mothers; the legal order collapsed with the alleged reforms and conditions.

The post expresses revolt because Ukraine and Moldova received recommendations for starting EU accession talks “by skipping the line” and without having to solve their problems, while N. Macedonia has been waiting for years, acquiescing to new and difficult requirements. Expressing such an opinion is legitimate, but the post intentionally omits some facts – even spreading lies – and shares some absurd claims. So, let’s analyze its parts, starting from the following:

This is an indicator that they do not want Macedonia as a member state, but they just want to disfigure it and obliterate it!

Blocking N. Macedonia is not a unique case. France blocked the EU accession process of the United Kingdom in 1963 and 1967, while Ireland and Denmark postponed theirs due to their economic links with the UK. The Danish rejection of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 postponed the integration of Austria, Finland, and Sweden, while Italy blocked Slovenia. Slovenia, on the other hand, blocked Croatia, while Greece may block Albania in the future. The Croatian President wanted to block the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO but was unsuccessful, though Turkey ultimately achieved this.

There have been, and there will be disputes. The only objection to the author of the fact-checked post is that N. Macedonia is receiving conditions that other countries have not received to date. N. Macedonia, however, does not have a problem with the EU and NATO entirely, but specifically with Greece and Bulgaria. Decisions in the EU and NATO are made by consensus, mediated through compromise between the involved parties. These steps were not invented to obliterate N. Macedonia in any way, shape, or form. 

The country would be destroyed without the financial assistance of our biggest economic partner, the EU, directed towards our transport, agriculture, education, healthcare, crisis services, customs, tourism, environment, municipalities, crisis management, etc. 

Nevertheless, the fact-checked post treats the EU and NATO as “satanic organizations”. As we’ve mentioned numerous times, no satanism is mentioned in the founding treaties of the EU and NATO, though the preamble of the Treaty of the EU mentions drawing inspiration from the European religious heritage. For centuries dominant religion in Europe has been Christianity, and some EU member states even demanded Christianity to be mentioned in the future Constitution of the EU, but for others that was too much since the EU does not favor any religion, not to mention satanism. Some EU and/or NATO member states, however, mention God (Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) or the Holy Trinity (Ireland and Greece), while the British King is the Chief of the Anglican Church and bears the title Defender of the Faith. Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria mention Orthodoxy, while Italy and Poland – Catholicism, and the Scandinavian countries – Lutherism. God is mentioned in the constitutions of many of America’s States, some of which still have obsolete prohibitions of atheists from performing public functions and testifying in court. We found many different things, but nowhere did we find satanism. 

The author of the post we are fact-checked further says the following: 

EC recommended start of accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova. 

Yes Ukraine, the country with an active war

And further adds the following: 

Copenhagen accession criteria are just a piece of paper for wiping one’s a**

Those rules do not specify that a country at war cannot join the EU and that such a country cannot negotiate membership. Yet, for the former Chief of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and French President Emmanuel Macron, such European integration is impossible, while the Austrian Member of the European Parliament Harald Vilimsky deems that crazy. In response to the consultative referendum on whether the EU should sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine that took place in the Netherlands in 2016, the majority voted against it, and one of the factors for that was the war in Donbas. 

So, not all EU member states are lenient towards Ukraine, but many believe that the country should be granted privileged treatment because it is fighting for European values. 

Further, the fact-checked post says that Ukraine: 

has no control over +30% of its territory 

That is not true. This year, Ukraine first did not control 17.5%, but then lost some towns and villages reaching 18%. There seem to be differences in opinion here, as the situation on the front changes frequently. But no one has ever specified 30%. 

The post is also silent about the fact that in the EU there is precedence for countries that do not control a certain percentage of their territory entering the Union. The Republic of Cyprus joined the EU despite the problem with North Cyprus (36 percent); Moldova received a recommendation despite the problem with Transnistria (12 percent); and Serbia became an EU candidate country despite the problem with Kosovo that Serbia treats as its own (15 percent). The post, however, is selectively complaining only about Ukraine and claims the following: 

…prohibited Russian language for the minorities…

Free use of the Russian language is guaranteed by Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine. Half of Kyiv and the entire Kharkiv and Odesa communicate only in Russian, including ethnic Ukrainians as a consequence of the assimilation under Imperial Russia and the USSR. The strong presence of the Russian language continued in independent Ukraine through the Russian language schools and media as well as the pro-Russian politicians like Viktor Yanukovich, which made many Ukrainians bitter. Subsequently, they introduced specific restrictions to the Russian language but never prohibited it. 

Hence, after the dismissal of Yanukovich on the 23rd of February 2014, the Parliament terminated a law from his time making the Russian language official in regions with a minimum of 10 percent of people speaking the language, but the termination was not signed by the Acting President Turchinov, who deemed such an act discriminatory and that a better law should be designed first. The law was not terminated but the events in Crimea and Donbas happened anyway. The law was terminated as late as 2018 through a decision of the Constitutional Court, likely influencing Russia’s aggressive behavior and the pro-Russian separatists in Crimea and Donbas.

After that, a law was adopted that secured the domination of the Ukrainian language, in terms of service provision must be done in Ukrainian, and if the person demanding the service does not understand Ukrainian, then Russian may be used; or most of the songs on the radio must be Ukrainian; or the language of instruction must be Ukrainian, while minorities may learn in their mother tongue in separate classes etc. That does not prohibit the Russian language. 

Furthermore, the post claims that Ukraine was killing the minorities: 

…was killing those from 2014… 

There was no minority genocide, but around February-March 2014, Russia invaded Crimea and incited an uprising throughout the rest of Ukraine by sending agents such as Igor Girkin-Strelkov, enabling the establishment of the so-called DPR on 7.4.2014. Ukrainians did not resist such a move, let alone perform genocide. Their struggle started as late as 14.4.2014. 

The war in Donbas ensued, leading to civilian casualties and isolated incidents, but not genocide. Many ethnic Russians also reside in Kharkiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhia Oblasts in Ukraine, where no genocide occurred either—only incidents instigated by pro-Russian separatists, such as the Odesa fire on the 2nd of May 2014.

The post further accuses the Ukrainians of: 

…banning the opposition and postponing the Presidential Elections until further notice… 

This is also disinformation. The term of the President of Ukraine in martial law is extended until a new President comes into office, one that will be elected towards the end of their term, but until then, elections will not be organized. It is normal to have some parties banned under such conditions, those playing the role of the ”fifth column”. Ukraine has legal opposition such as parties like European Solidarity, Batkivshchyna, Golos, and others. 

Considering all of the above-noted, the post is assessed as untrue.

 

 

 

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