European leaders are ready to grant Ukraine candidate status in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and strikes a blow at Vladimir Putin.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to approve Ukraine’s candidate status later Thursday, nearly four months after President Vladimir Zelensky launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of Russia’s invasion.
The transition from candidate to candidate usually takes years, but the EU has drastically accelerated the process amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack and to show solidarity with Ukraine’s defenders.
“Ukraine is going through hell for a simple reason: its desire to join the EU,” tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the eve of the summit. Last week, the commission called on EU leaders to grant Ukraine candidate status. “Our opinion acknowledges the enormous progress [Ukrainian] democracy has been achieved since the Maidan protests in 2014, “von der Layen said.
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Welcoming the expected positive decision, Zelenski said: “It’s like going into the light of darkness.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the candidate status would “draw a line under decades of uncertainty and stone it: Ukraine is Europe, not part of the ‘Russian world'”.
Speaking about the decision on candidate status, Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Vsevolod Chentsov, said earlier this week that the EU was moving at “lightning speed” by its own standards.
“We need that clarity [on EU membership] to support the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian society, morally, psychologically and to gain a clear sense and understanding of the direction of movement for Ukraine, “he said.
Ukraine has been seeking EU membership since the 2004 Orange Revolution and, more strongly, following the Maidan protests in 2013-14, when pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after refusing to sign an association agreement with the bloc. But before the war, EU membership was off the table for a country of 41 million people plagued by corruption.
When Zelensky announced Ukraine’s EU bid, many Western European countries were skeptical. Senior officials counted 10 member states that opposed Ukraine’s candidate status, but the mood changed as leaders feared they were on the wrong side of history.
EU capitals also know that membership talks will take many years. The process could be reversed if a future government in Kyiv fails to implement reforms in the rule of law and bring its economy in line with EU standards.
A draft copy of the conclusions of the summit seen by the Guardian states that the candidate country’s progress will depend on “its own merits”, but also “taking into account the EU’s capacity to absorb new members”.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the EU needs to “reform its internal procedures” to prepare for new members, calling for greater use of qualified majority votes in areas such as foreign policy to end one country. blocking the solution.
France is one of several countries opposed to renouncing its veto on foreign policy decisions.
EU leaders are also expected to grant EU candidate status to Moldova, a former Soviet country of 3.5 million people that has seen a surge in tensions following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. Georgia is expected to be given a “European perspective”, a step on the ladder under candidate status. Along with Moldova, Georgia applied to join the EU shortly after the Russian invasion, but Brussels is concerned about Tbilisi’s concession to the rule of law and freedom of the press.
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