LUXEMBOURG: The European Union on Tuesday kicked off accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, setting the fragile ex-Soviet states on a long path toward membership that Russia has tried to block.
The landmark move signals in particular a vote of confidence in Kyiv’s future at a time when Moscow has momentum on the battlefield almost two and a half years into the Kremlin’s invasion.
“Dear friends, today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said via videolink at the start of the talks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a “historic day” as officials from Kyiv and the EU’s 27 member states met in Luxembourg.
“We will never be derailed from our path to a united Europe and to our common home of all European nations,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on social media.
Ukraine and later Moldova lodged their bids to join the EU in the aftermath of Russia’s assault in February 2022.
The opening of the talks marks just the beginning of a protracted process of reforms in Ukraine that is strewn with political obstacles and will likely take many years — and may never lead to membership.
Standing in the way along that journey will be not just Russia’s efforts at destabilization but reticence from doubters inside the EU, most notably Hungary.
But European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called the opening of talks “very good news for the people of Ukraine, Moldova, and the entire European Union.”
“The path ahead will be challenging but full of opportunities,” she wrote on X on Tuesday.
So far, Ukraine has won plaudits for kickstarting a raft of reforms on curbing graft and political interference, even as war rages.
Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna, vowed that Kyiv “will be able to complete everything before 2030” to join the bloc.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has reinvigorated a push in the EU to take on new members, after years in which countries particularly in the Western Balkans made little progress on their hopes to join.
The EU in December 2023 also granted candidate status to Georgia, another of Russia’s former Soviet neighbors.
It likewise approved accession negotiations with Bosnia and has talks ongoing with Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia.
The meetings with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday will set off a process of screening of how far laws in the countries already comply with EU standards and how much more work lies ahead.
Once that is done the EU then has to begin laying out conditions for negotiations on 35 subjects, ranging from taxation to environmental policy.
Stefanishyna said the next step should come in early 2025.
EU countries pushed to start the talks now before Hungary — the friendliest country to Russia in the bloc — takes over the EU’s rotating presidency next month.
Budapest has been opposed to pressing ahead with Kyiv’s membership bid, arguing that Ukraine was unfairly moving ahead for political reasons.
“From what I see here as we speak, they are very far from meeting the accession criteria,” Hungary’s Europe minister Janos Boka said on Tuesday.
Accepting Ukraine — a war-ravaged country of some 40 million people — would be a major step for the EU, and there are calls for the bloc to carry out reforms to streamline how it works before accepting new members.
The start of the talks resonates powerfully in Ukraine, as it was a desire for closer ties with the EU that sparked protests back in 2014 that eventually spiralled into the full-blown crisis with Russia.
The negotiations also come at a tense time in Moldova after the United States, Britain and Canada warned of a Russian “plot” to influence the country’s presidential elections in October.
Wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova’s pro-Western authorities frequently accuse the Kremlin of interfering in its internal affairs.
President Maia Sandu has accused Moscow, which has troops stationed in a breakaway region of the country, of aiming to destabilize Moldova ahead of the vote.
“Our future is within the European family,” Sandu wrote on X. “We are stronger together.”
EU launches ‘historic’ membership talks with Ukraine, Moldova
https://arab.news/pub6e
EU launches ‘historic’ membership talks with Ukraine, Moldova
- Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna, vowed that Kyiv “will be able to complete everything before 2030” to join the bloc
Belgrade police arrest man with crossbow two days after Israeli embassy attack
- Serbia has been on high alert since Saturday, when a member of a special police unit was shot in the neck with a crossbow outside the Israeli embassy
BELGRADE: Belgrade police on Monday arrested a man who approached a police station carrying a backpack with a crossbow, two days after a crossbow attack at the Israeli embassy in the Serbian capital, police said.
In a statement, police authorities said the man crossed a barrier in front of the station and, after being ordered to stop, hurriedly started to walk away. Officers then caught up with him and carried out a search.
“In his backpack, a crossbow with seven arrows, several knives, and a jar with firecrackers were found. Motives are being investigated and a search of his apartment is being conducted,” police said.
It said the suspect was not on the government’s list of potential “extremists,” without adding details.
Police said he claimed that he was “being pursued by the mafia and secret services.”
“A medical examination will be carried out, and further actions will be decided by the prosecutor,” Serbia’s police minister Ivica Dacic said in the statement.
Serbia has been on high alert since Saturday, when a member of a special police unit was shot in the neck with a crossbow outside the Israeli embassy.
The officer then opened fire and killed the attacker, said Dacic, denouncing a “heinous terrorist act.” The officer remains in hospital recovering after undergoing surgery.
Authorities said the assailant was a Serbian convert to Islam. His wife, currently in Montenegro, is being questioned by police at Serbia’s request.
UK’s Sunak urges right-wing voters to stand by his party
- “If there is an unchecked, unaccountable Labour Party in power with a super majority, think what that would mean for everyone,” Sunak told voters at a rally
LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday urged voters on the political right to stick with his Conservatives at this week’s election, saying a huge win for Labour would be bad for the country and its democracy.
Appearing to all but concede defeat before Thursday’s election, Sunak appealed to Conservative voters, some of whom have been shifting to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK in protest at his Conservative government, to prevent what he called a Labour “super majority.”
The Conservatives look set to be kicked out of office after 14 turbulent years, marked by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 and the cost of living crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Opinion polls have consistently given Keir Starmer’s center-left Labour Party an around 20-point lead, with support for Reform potentially splitting the center-right vote and the centrist Liberal Democrats further draining Conservative support.
“If there is an unchecked, unaccountable Labour Party in power with a super majority, think what that would mean for everyone,” Sunak told voters at a rally.
“Once you’ve given Labour a blank check, you won’t be able to get it back, and that means that your taxes are going up ... it’s in their DNA.”
Farage, one of Britain’s most recognizable and divisive politicians, has spent decades railing against the establishment and the European Union, and has in recent years campaigned for Donald Trump in the United States.
SPLIT THE RIGHT
He entered the election in early June — his eighth attempt at winning a seat in the Westminster parliament — vowing to supplant the Conservatives as the main party of the right.
Polls appear to show that Reform’s support peaked in the second half of June, shortly before Farage said the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some of his candidates and supporters have been dropped for racist or inappropriate remarks.
While Britain’s electoral system means Reform may win millions of votes, the party is unlikely to win more than a handful of parliamentary seats. But that could be enough to split the right in many areas and hand victory to Labour.
Reform said on Monday its membership had doubled from 30,000 to 60,000 in a month, and that donations would help it fund an advertising campaign through the last week.
“It is humbling but also very telling that they are prepared to back their faith in Reform UK with hard-earned cash and I thank each and every one of them,” Farage said in a statement.
Britain will likely elect a center-left government as much of Europe swings right, including in France where Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally won the first round of a parliamentary election on Sunday.
With polls showing many voters are undecided, Sunak made a final plea for people to limit Labour’s power if it gets into government, saying: “I say to every Conservative: don’t surrender to Labour, fight for every vote, fight for our values, and fight for our vision of Britain.”
China says US targeting of AI not helpful to healthy development
UNITED NATIONS: US targeting of certain investments in artificial intelligence in China is not helpful to the “healthy development” of AI technology and will be divisive when it comes to global governance, China’s UN envoy said on Monday.
The United States last month issued draft rules for banning or requiring notification of certain investments in artificial intelligence and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security.
“We are firmly opposed to these sanctions,” Chinese UN Ambassador Fu Cong told reporters after the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a Chinese-drafted resolution aimed at boosting international cooperation on AI capacity-building.
The UN resolution calls upon the international community to “provide and promote a fair, open, inclusive and non-discriminatory business environment across the life cycle of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems.”
Fu said the US actions do not foster an inclusive business environment and he urged Washington to reverse its decision.
“We don’t believe that the US government’s position or decision will be helpful to the healthy development of the AI technology, per se, and will — by extension — divide the world in terms of the standards and in terms of the rules governing the AI,” he said.
The US Treasury Department published the proposed rules after US President Joe Biden signed an executive order last August as part of a broader push to prevent US know-how from helping the Chinese to develop sophisticated technology and dominate global markets.
Supreme Court says Trump has some immunity, further delaying trial
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that Donald Trump enjoys some immunity from prosecution as a former president, a decision set to delay his trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
The 6-3 ruling split along ideological lines comes four months ahead of the presidential election in which Trump is the Republican candidate to take on Democrat Joe Biden.
Justices who disagreed with the judgment issued stinging criticism and aired fears for the country’s democratic future, but Trump was quick to revel in what he called a “big win.”
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, in his majority opinion, said a president is “not above the law” but does have “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office.
“The president therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers,” Roberts said.
“As for a President’s unofficial acts, there is no immunity,” the chief justice added, sending the case back to a lower court to determine which of the charges facing Trump involve official or unofficial conduct.
Both a District Court and an appeals court panel had previously rejected Trump’s immunity claims in a historic case with far-reaching implications for executive power.
The District Court will now hold a series of pre-trial hearings, making a trial before November extremely unlikely.
Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States as well as obstruction of an official proceeding — when a violent mob of his supporters tried to prevent the January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress held to certify Biden’s victory.
The 78-year-old former president is also charged with conspiracy to deny Americans the right to vote and to have their votes counted.
The three liberal justices dissented from Monday’s ruling with Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying she was doing so “with fear for our democracy.”
“Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law,” Sotomayor said. “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune,” she said.
Trump, in posts on Truth Social, welcomed the decision calling it a “big win for our Constitution and democracy.”
“Today’s Historic Decision by the Supreme Court should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me,” he said.
Biden’s Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks expressed outrage.
“They just handed Donald Trump the keys to a dictatorship,” Fulks said.
The White House said Biden would personally address the Supreme Court ruling in remarks to reporters at 7:45 p.m. (2345 GMT).
Trump’s original trial date in the election subversion case had been March 4.
But the Supreme Court — dominated by conservatives, including three appointed by Trump — agreed to hear his argument for absolute immunity, putting the case on hold while they considered the matter in April.
Steven Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, said the ruling means the case “is going to drag on more and more and longer and longer and well beyond the election.”
“To the extent that Trump was trying to drag his feet and extend this beyond the election, he has succeeded wildly,” Schwinn said.
The opinion also provides a “roadmap” for a US leader to avoid prosecution for a particular action “simply by intertwining it with official government action,” he added.
“That’s going to seriously hamstring the prosecution of a former president because the president’s official actions and unofficial actions are so often intertwined,” he said.
Facing four criminal cases, Trump has been doing everything in his power to delay the trials until after the election.
Trump was convicted in New York in May of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal in the final stages of the 2016 campaign, making him the first former US president ever convicted of a crime.
His sentencing will take place on July 11.
By filing a blizzard of pre-trial motions, Trump’s lawyers have managed to put on hold the three other trials, which deal with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and hoarding top-secret documents at his home in Florida.
If reelected, Trump could, once sworn in as president in January 2025, order the federal cases against him closed.
French left, Macron race to prevent far-right takeover
- Analysts say that the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos
PARIS: Emmanuel Macron's centrist camp and a left-wing alliance were on Monday battling to prevent the far right from taking an absolute majority and control of government in a historic first after the French president's gamble on early parliamentary elections backfired.
The far-right National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen won a resounding victory in the first round of the polls on Sunday, with Macron's centrists trailing in third place behind the left-wing New Popular Front coalition.
Le Pen has asked voters to give her party an absolute majority during a second round of voting on July 7 so 28-year-old RN chief Jordan Bardella can become prime minister.
But most projections show the RN falling short of an absolute majority, even though the final outcome remains far from certain.
"The extreme right at the threshold of power," read Monday's headline in daily Le Monde.
Ahead of the second round, Macron's camp has begun cooperating with the left-wing alliance in the hopes that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority, which Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said would be "catastrophic".
Third-place candidates who qualified for the second round have been urged to drop out to present a united front against the far-right.
Macron in a written statement on Sunday night urged a "broad" democratic coalition against the far right, which Bardella branded "a dishonourable alliance".
On Monday he convened a government meeting to decide a further course of action.
"Let's not be mistaken. It's the far right that's on its way to the highest office, no one else," he said at the meeting, according to one participant.
"Not a single vote must go to the far right."
He did not give any firm instructions to candidates over standing down, sources said.
The emotion was palpable at the meeting, with three ministers dropping out of the race.
The deadline to decide whether to stand down is Tuesday evening. According to a provisional count by AFP, more than 150 left-wing or centrist candidates have dropped out already.
Analysts say that the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos.
The political crisis comes as Paris is preparing to host the Olympic Games this summer.
The RN garnered 33 percent of the vote on Sunday, compared to 28 percent for the left-wing New Popular Front alliance, and more than 20 percent for Macron's centrist camp.
With a total of 76 candidates elected in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will only be clear after the second phase.
The second round will see a three-way or two-way run-off in the remainder of the seats to be decided -- although a tiny number of four-way run-offs are also possible.
The French stock market, which had been under considerable pressure in June amid the political uncertainty, rallied in early trading on hopes the RN would not win an absolute majority.
"The French election results have led to a sigh of relief from financial markets," noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading group.
The arrival of the anti-immigration RN in government would be a turning point in French modern history -- the first time a far-right force has taken power in the country since World War II, when it was occupied by Nazi Germany.
If the RN takes an absolute majority and Bardella, who has no governing experience, becomes prime minister, this would create a tense period of "cohabitation" with Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027.
The election results fuelled fresh criticism of Macron's decision to call the poll in the first place, a move he took with only a tight circle of advisers in the hours after his party was trounced by the RN in European elections last month.
The right-wing Le Figaro in its editorial said the country faced a "tragedy" with only "bad solutions" on offer.
The chaos risks damaging the international credibility of Macron, who is et to attend the NATO summit in Washington immediately after the second round.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the United States expected "to continue our close cooperation with the French government" regardless of the election results.
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the far-right success was a cause for concern, describing the RN as "a party that sees Europe as the problem and not the solution".
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the results represented a "very dangerous" turn for France and Europe.
Russia, which the French government has repeatedly accused of seeking to interfere in domestic politics, is following the election results in France "very closely", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
With elections looming on Thursday in the United Kingdom, where the left-wing Labour party is expected to end 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule, Labour leader Keir Starmer said the French polls were a lesson that "we need to address the everyday concerns of so many people".
But far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the results, saying attempts to "demonise" far-right voters were losing impact.
