Ukraine’s leadership on Thursday (2 February) made an unequivocal plea for EU membership as the bloc’s top officials met their government counterparts in Kyiv in a first-of-its-kind gathering.
Welcoming the EU executive’s delegation in a heavily fortified Gorodetsky House in central Kyiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday pressed EU visitors to advance his war-torn country’s accession to the bloc.
“I believe that Ukraine deserves to start negotiations on EU membership this year,” Zelenskyy said after talks with von der Leyen, thanking the EU executive for the military, financial and humanitarian support “on the path to integration”.
He added that further integration with the European bloc would inspire Ukrainians and give them “motivation” to fight against Russian troops as it was important “not only to have victories on the battlefield” but also to believe in a peaceful Europe.
Accession to the EU would be “the next logical step”, Zelenskyy said when he later met the whole EU delegation.
But many EU officials believe Kyiv’s path to full membership will be a long process that could take years, while the bloc also needs to manage the expectations of other EU candidates which awaiting been waiting their turn for up to a decade.
The European Commission recommended EU candidate status for Ukraine in June on the understanding that Kyiv undertakes a series of legislative and policy steps, dubbed the seven recommendations.
These recommendations included enacting legislation on a selection process for the country’s Constitutional Court judges on a competitive basis, strengthening the fight against corruption, harmonising media regulation with EU standards, and protecting national minorities.
As Kyiv has been pressing ahead with reforms over the past months, Ukrainian leaders have expressed hopes that their country could join the bloc in the near future, possibly even within the next two years.
Balancing act
Thursday’s meeting came on the eve of a high-profile EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv on Friday (3 February), where the bloc’s leaders are set to meet Zelenskyy.
It is the first time an EU summit of this kind will take place in an active war zone and is meant to show support amid Russia’s aggression.
However, while the EU is expected to commend Ukraine on its progress on membership-bound reforms and send a strong message to Moscow, according to a draft summit communique seen by EURACTIV, it will likely not entertain Ukraine’s hope for swift membership to the EU.
Member states remain divided over the speed of accession, with Poland, the Baltics and some others pushing for Kyiv’s membership application to be considered soon, while another camp of mostly Western European countries remains more cautious.
With some warning of too positive wording from EU officials, the latter in Kyiv have been carefully choosing their words on accession, which is becoming a delicate balancing act.
The talks Thursday came a day after Ukraine expanded its anti-corruption efforts by raiding the residences of an oligarch and a former interior minister, a key issue for Kyiv to secure approval to join the EU.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy, Von der Leyen said she was “comforted” to see that the corruption crackdown was delivering “tangible results”.
Von der Leyen said Ukraine was “taking notable steps forward to meet our recommendations while simultaneously fighting an invasion.”
“We have never been closer,” she said, noting, “We are also working on extending tariff-free access to our market.”
Thursday’s first-ever European Commission-to-government consultations included a discussion of military aid for Ukraine as well as a series of policy agreements that suggest the will for ‘progressive integration’ into the bloc, such as access for Ukrainian products to the EU single market, extending an EU no-roaming zone to Ukraine and participation in a number of programmes that will allow Ukrainian businesses and agencies to access EU funds.
Another key commitment included the EU ramping up its military support and doubling its training mission targets for Ukraine.
Most recently, the European Commission’s internal do-called Support Group for Ukraine has been turned into a whole new directorate dedicated to Ukraine to be focused on reconstruction and accession.
Upcoming assessments
The next big hurdle will be an informal spring assessment of the European Commission’s seven recommendations, before the regular assessment as part of the EU’s regular enlargement package in October.
Speaking in plenary to his Ukrainian counterparts in Kyiv, EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, for the first time also previewed some initial findings prepared by the bloc’s executive on Ukraine’s current alignment with accession criteria.
“This report underlines strong efforts in aligning with the EU acquis, which I would like to acknowledge and also identified areas where further work should still be done,” Várhelyi said.
“We are, of course, impressed by the speed with which Ukraine has been addressing certain steps in very difficult circumstances,” Varhelyi said, welcoming the reforms Ukraine has pushed through so far.
“At the same time, speed should not come at the expense of quality,” he added, alluding to worries that some of Ukraine’s recent reforms might have been rushed.
Várhelyi stressed more reforms would be needed in areas such as anti-corruption and justice, anti-money laundering, de-oligarchisation, media laws and national minorities.
Speaking later to reporters alongside Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, who led the consultations on the Ukrainian side, Von der Leyen repeated the EU’s accession process would be ‘merit-based’, with a first assessment of Ukraine’s progress expected later this year.
“We understand clearly well that the decision will have to be made by all EU members unanimously, will trigger prior discussion, but will take a while,” Shmyhal said when pressed by reporters about prior comments about his hopes for becoming a member by 2026.
But recalling the progress and de-facto steps in integration that have been made over the past twelve months, Shmyhal turned to reporters and asked: “Can anyone believe all of this can be done in one year – no one could believe this!”
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
Source: Euractiv.com
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