The EU Commission is in favor of officially nominating Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for accession to the European Union. This was announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday. “Ukraine deserves a European perspective,” said von der Leyen. But the heads of state and government of the 27 member countries have to decide this.
According to the Commission, the country has clearly expressed its desire and commitment to live up to European values and standards. “The Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective,” said von der Leyen, referring to the Russian war of aggression against the country. We want to enable them to live the European dream. Von der Leyen made a similar statement about Moldova. For Georgia, on the other hand, she initially only recommended a “European perspective” without official candidate status.
Ukraine comments on decision
The authority is thus laying the basis for a possible decision by the EU member states. The heads of state and government already want to discuss the issue at a summit meeting at the end of next week.
According to the President’s Office in Kyiv, Ukraine is grateful for the EU Commission’s proposal. The EU heads of state and government are now expected to agree to this, according to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Accession process subject to conditions
Ukraine, which has more than 40 million citizens, applied for EU membership around three and a half months ago, shortly after the start of the Russian attack. Shortly thereafter, the small neighbor Moldova and Georgia in south-eastern Europe also submitted applications for membership. Moldova recently had around 2.6 million inhabitants, Georgia around 3.7 million.
The procedure now proposed by the EU Commission envisages giving Ukraine and Moldova the status of EU accession candidates. At the same time, the authority believes that further progress in the accession process should be linked to specific conditions. In both countries there are shortcomings in the area of the rule of law and in the fight against corruption.
The ball is in the hands of the heads of government and state
According to the EU Commission’s recommendation, Georgia, which is also aiming to join the EU, should only be granted candidate status after certain conditions have been met. Like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, the country would initially only be a potential candidate for accession.
Based on the Commission’s recommendation, the EU states must now decide how to proceed. So far, the governments’ views on the subject have differed widely. According to diplomats, countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands consider the granting of candidate status to the three states in Eastern Europe to be premature and purely symbolic.
Scholz spoke out in favor of Ukraine’s candidate status
Another argument put forward by skeptics is that the EU, with its principle of unanimity in matters such as foreign and security policy, is already considered cumbersome. They first urge internal reforms before opening the door to new members.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and French President Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, spoke in Kyiv on Thursday in favor of Ukraine becoming a candidate for accession. Germany and France argue that the candidate status does not anticipate the admission decision, nor is it associated with a time frame. Turkey, for example, has been a candidate for accession since 1999.
Bir Yorum