"Ukraine has dreamed of becoming the largest parasite on the body of the European Union of all newcomers admitted over the past 10-15 years. This doctrine of the largest parasite has met with no support from the European Union at all," Pushkov said.

In his speech entitled European Union: a Source of Stability in a Time of Crisis Juncker reaffirmed the idea he had put forward when he took office as the EU leader: the European Union will need a long pause before admitting new member-states. This does not apply to the Balkan countries with which the European Union is already in talks over membership. As for Ukraine, it will certainly have no chance of joining the EU over 20-25 years and the same is true of NATO membership, Juncker said.

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. European Commission President Jean-Claud Juncker’s statement Ukraine will have no chances of joining the European Union and NATO over the next 20-25 years is a sure sign the doctrine of "Europe’s Big Parasite," which Kiev has pressed for all along is doomed to receive no support, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Alexey Pushkov, has told TASS.

Prevailing point of view

Pushkov believes that the Juncker expressed the EU’s prevailing point of view: Ukraine is unprepared for joining the European Union and it should not be admitted to NATO. At the same time there is a group of countries that follow in the US footsteps first and foremost. Their viewpoint is different, but they prefer keep quiet about it, because the chances of Ukraine entering the EU and NATO are equal to zero, Pushkov said.

"Nevertheless, there are certain states that look at Ukraine from the political point of view first and foremost - as a country that will expand NATO’s opportunities for bringing its military infrastructures closer to Russia’s borders, as a country that can be used as a military and political stronghold against Russia," Pushkov said.

Accession postponed

Juncker’s statement as such does not herald any fundamental change of attitude. It is just a recognition of the hard fact, Pushkov said. He recalled that nobody in the European Union had ever speculated Ukraine might become a member of the EU and NATO in the near future.

"At the most the European Union will be prepared to agree to association, and NATO, to stepping up cooperation with Ukraine," Pushkov said. "Juncker has merely postponed the date of Ukraine’s possible accession. And that’s all what’s really new. I believe that hardly any EU country will dare argue with the EU president at a time when Ukraine is losing popularity in the EU," he said.

"Ukraine blocks the Minsk Accords and does nothing to reform itself. It indulges in demagogy but does not move an inch closer to the requirements crucial for putting the very possibility of Ukraine’s accession to NATO and to the EU on the agenda," Pushkov believes.

EU’s "expansion fatigue"

Pushkov suspects that the European Union is already experiencing what he has described as "expansion fatigue."

"The EU has already accommodated a number of states that have not benefited it at all. In reality, some countries, for instance, Bulgaria and Romania, make life harder for the EU," he explained.

"These are countries with weak economies that pull the EU back, and not forward. They had been admitted precisely for geopolitical reasons, for the sake of adding the economic component to their military-political integration with NATO," Pushkov said. "As far as I understand, that was done under certain pressures from the United States, but now it is the Europeans who have to pay for the admission of states that have added nothing to the EU’s potential."