The opposition believes Marta Kos to be unsuitable for the post of European Commissioner for a number of reasons. Among others, her inadequate experience, her lobbying activities, and strong evidence that she was a source for the Yugoslav secret service, the Directorate for State Security – UDBA, are all problematic. Her views on Russia are also highly problematic. A statement made shortly after the start of Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine suggests that she is strongly pro-Russian, which is a problem, as her portfolio at the European Commission would also include assistance to Ukraine.
MEP Romana Tomc reminded everyone of these views, saying: “The portfolio assigned to Slovenia includes not only the Western Balkans, but also Ukraine. From Ms Kos’s statements, one could conclude that she is strongly pro-Russian. This is a problem. We do not even know about her views and links with the Western Balkans. This will have to be clarified in detail in the debate in the responsible committee.”
The controversial views were expressed by the Slovenian Commissioner-designate in an interview with the Slovenian media outlet Žurnal on the 20th of March 2022, a month after the invasion began. That was, for example, the month of the Bucha massacre, in which, according to the Ukrainian government, 458 people lost their lives. That month, Russian troops were still in the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital.
At that time, Marta Kos said that we should not close our doors to Russia, and she described the shift in foreign policy of the Janez Janša government – away from Moscow and towards Washington – as controversial:
In the interview, just like the leaders of the failed “Constitutional Arch Coalition” (KUL), which were actually the then-parties of the opposition, she also problematised Janša’s visit to Kyiv. It is important to note that this was the historic visit of the three statesmen Janša, Fiala and Morawiecki that paved the way for today’s EU policy towards Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the influential Visegrad24 X-profile also drew attention to the views she expressed at the time: “Marta Kos, nominated by Slovenia as European Commissioner for Enlargement & Ukraine Reconstruction, praised Slovenia’s “long-standing strong relations with Russia” 3 weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She criticised Slovenia’s pivot toward the USA under the government of Janez Janša.”
Ž. K.
