Ukraine should ditch NATO ambition; post-Brexit chaos 'inevitable': Poland's Kwaśniewski

“We’ll have chaos in Europe within the next three to five years,” Kwaśniewski said in a recent interview for commercial broadcaster TVN24, adding that a Brexit vote paves the wave for further in/out referendums in the bloc.

Kwaśniewski fears that a “three-speed Europe” is likely to emerge, as the older EU member states, such as Germany, France and Italy, are bound to pursue closer integration among each other. A broader group would take in all Eurozone countries, whereas states with their own national currencies will make progress the slowest, Kwaśniewski says. This will spell “more uncertainty” for Poland, particularly as the country will lose Britain as its key strategic partner in the EU.

Kwaśniewski is concerned about the security of Poland, which is organizing a NATO summit next week. The former president, who had brought the country into the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union, believes Central and Eastern Europe is facing far more uncertain times than it had experienced since Poland entered NATO in 1999. Kwaśniewski points to ongoing Russian activity in the Baltic Sea, especially off Estonia and Latvia, alongside Moldova.

The former president also believes Ukraine should abandon its dreams of becoming a NATO member, although nothing stands in the way of the country joining the EU, Kwaśniewski says.

Amid pressure from NATO’s Eastern European member states which fear potential aggression by Russia, country leaders gathering at a summit in Warsaw this week are expected to agree to bolster the alliance's military presence in the Baltic States and Poland.

This entails the formation of multinational battalions based in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. (aba)

Source: Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung, TVN24