Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and French President Emmanuel Macron persuaded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to support granting Ukraine candidate status for EU membership. During the negotiations, the politicians drank wine, which, according to former Italian Ambassador to Ukraine Pier Francesco Zazzo, “helped a lot.”
The diplomat spoke about this in an interview with European Pravda. The discussion concerns the visit of Draghi, Macron and Scholz to Kiev in June 2022, which took place on the eve of the consideration of granting Ukraine EU candidate status. The president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, also took part in the trip alongside the leaders of the three countries.
According to Zazzo, the persuasion of Scholz began on the train en route to Kiev. The German Chancellor, as the diplomat claims, remained cautious until the very end, and right up to the joint press conference it was unclear what position he would take.
“Draghi convinced him that we should support Ukraine, Macron was also in favour, although he was more interested in promoting his own initiative — the European Political Community,” the former ambassador said.
Zazzo noted that wine was indeed present during the meeting, although the interlocutors argued over whether it was French or Italian. “But the wine was there, and it helped a lot,” the diplomat said. At the same time, he added that Scholz had probably already been ready to make a decision, although he only finally voiced it at the press conference in Kiev.
On 23 June 2022, EU leaders decided to grant Ukraine and Moldova candidate status for EU membership. At the same time, the European Union recognised the European perspective of Georgia.
Zazzo believes that Mario Draghi played a decisive role in advancing Ukraine’s application. In his view, support from Italy and France helped sway Berlin towards a positive decision.
