Irish MEP Michael McNamara has described the Ukrainian’s passing of a controversial Bill to weaken anti-corruption agencies as “sad but not surprising,” while questioning the country’s preparedness to join the European Union.
Mr McNamara, an Independent politician and member of the Renew grouping, said that some people wanted Ukraine to join the EU “merely because they hate Russia,” saying this was “not a good enough reason to bring more organised crime and corruption into [the] EU.”
The MEP made the remarks after thousands of people took to the streets of Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine on Tuesday to urge President Volodymyr Zelensky to veto a controversial bill that, according to Associated Press, would threaten anti-corruption legislation. The powers include the ability to reassign or redirect investigations.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Michael McNamara, who was previously a TD for Clare, but is now a Member of the European Parliament for the South constituency, wrote:
“Sad but not surprising. I’ve questioned Ukraine’s preparedness to join the EU and whether lessons would be learned from 2007. Some want it join merely because they hate Russia. Not a good enough reason to bring more organised crime and corruption into EU.”
In April, McNamara said that the EU must be “careful” not to talk itself into a military conflict with Russia, stating that a “coalition of the willing” appeared more for domestic consumption than making any meaningful military impact on the ground in Ukraine. The MEP said that a sense of “hysteria” had emerged from within the EU over the threat of Russia.
“I don’t want to see the European Union becoming a defence project,” he said. “I’ve no problem if countries do want to be in a defence project, but they’re in one. It’s called NATO. And most of the countries that joined in 2004 with the big accession had joined NATO before they joined the European Union. The European Union should be primarily about trade; that is what it was established to be.”
He added: “Obviously we do have to live in the world in which we live, and respond to the pressures in which we live, but I just don’t fully understand why it’s seen fit to replicate NATO.”
Asked if he thought the threat of Russia was overestimated, Mr McNamara said that it was the case that people in Ireland would view the conflict differently than someone from Estonia, “and you’re right up against the border, and there are military manoeuvres on your doorstep and activities in the Baltic Sea.”
“I think we need to be careful not to talk ourselves into an even bigger threat, and there’s always that danger,” McNamara said. “When you try to talk a population into believing in an aggressor, you somehow slip over the line into a conflict and that would be a big fear of mine. I’m not saying Russia isn’t a threat, but Russia has been a threat for a very long time. Putin isn’t a particularly nice individual but there haven’t been that many nice individuals who’ve ruled from the Kremlin over the past hundreds of years. This isn’t something new to Europe, but I think the hysteria of the response is new to Europe.”
He said that it was “a bit fanciful” to think that the deployment of 10,000 troops into Ukraine, formed through a “coalition of the willing,” as suggested by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, would have any impact.
“I just think there’s a lack of reality to what much of Europe is talking about. There’s almost a desire to be important; a desire to be significant. But 10,000 troops is simply an irrelevance in the context of the size of the Ukrainian armed forces, and the size of the Russian armed forces on the other side of the border. It’s kind of shadow boxing, and more for domestic consumption than for any desire to achieve anything meaningful in Ukraine.”
The law passed on Tuesday gives the prosecutor general control of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (Nabu) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sap), with critics claiming that such a move would undermine their authority. Because of the law, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Zelensky loyalist Ruslan Kravchenko, will now have the power to reassign corruption probes to potentially more pliant investigators, and even to close them, the BBC reports.
Tuesday’s action is the first major rally against Ukraine’s government in more than three years of war. Despite anti-government demonstrations breaking out, Zelensky signed a bill weakening anti-corruption institutions into law. Before Parliament backed the Bill to limit the power of such agencies, thousands of people gathered close to the president’s office to demand he back down. It came amid mounting international condemnation over the proposal, with Zelensky saying in a speech on Wednesday that both agencies would still “work,” however, needed to be cleared of “Russian influence”.
In an overnight address, Zelensky hit out at the efficiency of Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure, claiming that cases had been “lying dormant”.
“There is no rational explanation for why criminal proceedings worth billions have been ‘hanging’ for years,” he said, adding that the prosecutor general would ensure “the inevitability of punishment” for those who broke the law.
Shouts of “Shame!” were heard in the Verkhovna Rada as MPs backed the law. Meanwhile, demonstrators were pictured carrying placards which read: “Welcome to Russia,” amid claims that Ukraine was “turning into Russia” over the proposal.