Dr. Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan:

I agree that they were brought in too quickly. The rhetoric at the time was that we had a duty to bring them in. There was also a race towards NATO membership. The countries joined NATO before they joined the European Union, but the events were in close proximity and there was some rivalry between the two international organisations. The countries were brought in too quickly, having regard to the need for compliance with the Copenhagen criteria set out in 1993. It is clear that they were brought in as a political message. Thereafter, we tried to play catch-up and now find ourselves in the current position. I am not sure that is the reason for populism developing to such an extent in those countries, but they have not yet developed a strong attachment to European Union values. The Deputy mentioned that there should be consequences, but the consequences have not been sufficiently strong or timely.