00:00Nobody believes Crimea will ever go back to Ukraine, as part of any final resolution to
00:06the war there, says former president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.
00:11Mr. Barroso led the European Commission from 2004 to 2014, the period when Putin first
00:18began his territorial incursions into Georgia and Ukraine.
00:22Speaking exclusively to Euronews, he says there was a feeling amongst member states
00:26that Crimea was a special case.
00:29But many countries rejected the ideas of strong sanctions for Putin following the annexation.
00:35What do you think of the period, I suppose?
00:38Do you think that the warnings weren't taken seriously?
00:41Was there a belief that in 2014 maybe we shouldn't escalate by applying such extreme sanctions
00:48against Russia for Crimea?
00:49It's very easy today to say what should have happened afterwards, because we did not at
00:56that time have the information.
00:58We have to see what was possible at that time.
01:00The reality is that the governments were not ready to go further.
01:04That is the reality.
01:05The Commission will be ready to go further, but the governments were not ready to go further
01:10because of their own interests and probably because they thought, and that's interesting,
01:15that what I'm going to say now is delicate, but I'm going to say it, because at least
01:20in the back of our minds, or the minds of the European governments, was that Crimea
01:25is a special case.
01:28That's why today, honestly, nobody believes that Ukraine is going to get back Crimea.
01:35That's the reality.
01:36And what should we do now?
01:37We should support Ukraine.
01:40And whatever happens with our American friends, we should support Ukraine, because if not,
01:46it's not only going to be a tragedy for Ukraine, it's a very important country, but it's a
01:50tragedy for Europe.
01:52And it's going to be the best possible offer we give to the movement against democracy,
02:00against international law, against also our own values.
02:04If Russia, and others that are now supporting Russia, continue to say all over the world,
02:09including in the so-called global south, that Europe and the West, they are gone, they are
02:14decadent, they no longer count, democracy is a completely corrupt ideology.
02:21And the rest of the interview will be broadcast on Euronews' Europe Conversation next Thursday.
