She promised an imminent response. However, the question does not seem close to being settled. On a surprise visit to kyiv on Saturday June 11, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, pledged to give an answer “next week” about Ukraine’s ambitions to apply for EU membership. “We want to support Ukraine on its European journey”she said during a short press conference after her meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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“Today’s discussions will allow us to finalize our assessment by the end of next week”she added, noting that the Ukrainian authorities have “does a lot” for a candidacy, but that there is “still a lot to do”, particularly in the fight against corruption. And the road that remains to be traveled will not be long only on the Ukrainian side. Because joining the EU requires the unanimous agreement of all member countries. And at this point, the 27 remain divided on the issue.
Several countries, mainly located in Eastern Europe, unreservedly support Ukraine’s membership. On February 28, four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, eight of them – the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – had called in an open letter to open discussions on Ukraine’s membership. “We, the Presidents of the EU Member States (…) strongly believe that Ukraine deserves to receive the prospect of immediate EU membership“, they wrote.
Among these leaders, the Polish President, Andrzej Duda, who pleaded on May 22 for Ukraine to join the EU, promising that he would not relax his efforts “as long as Ukraine is not a member of the European Union”. “We must respect” the peoples who “shed their blood” to belong to Europe, “even if the situation is complicated, even if there are doubts. I have no doubt that the European Union will make such a gesture” towards Ukraine, he stressed during a press conference. His Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, was also worried about a “lack of political will” to quickly bring Ukraine into the EU.
Because some members, such as the Netherlands or Denmark, but also Germany and France, which chairs the EU until the end of June, are more reserved. Like the French president, who maintains an ambiguous position on the issue. “Can we open an accession procedure with a country at war? I do not believe that”, had declared Emmanuel Macron on March 10 in Versailles (Yvelines), without however ruling out any possibility of joining a European institution. On Europe Day, May 9, the French President proposed integrating Ukraine into a new “European political community”along with other “democratic nations” from the Old Continent, such as the United Kingdom.
During the same day, the French president had made remarks that refreshed relations between kyiv and Paris. “We must not humiliate Russia, so that the day the fighting stops, we can build a diplomatic exit path”, he reiterated Friday, June 3 in front of all the French regional daily press. On the German side, on May 19, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German Parliament that he was not in favor of granting Ukraine a “shortcut” with a view to joining the EU, reports Euronews.
A reserve that is not to the liking of Italian Prime Minister and former President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. During the last European Council at the end of May, the head of the Italian government even asserted: “Almost all the major states of the European Union are opposed to candidate status, with the exception of Italy.”
Even if Ukraine gets the “candidate status”this will start a process of negotiations and potential reforms that could take years, if not decades, before it is on the verge of joining the EU.