EU grants Ukraine candidate status after Macron, Sholz and Dragi visit Kyiv, Ukraine. The EU bloc announced EU candidate status earlier today.
This is despite an array of carrying opinions with EU leaders who support Ukraine’s fight for independence but have refrained from providing assurances to EU membership.
Leading political analysts from EU News had commentated that the EU is playing a duplicitous game with the EU. Some even remarked the EU candidate status would be no more than just a fake offer.
However, following a visit to Ukraine on a night train the leaders agreed that Ukraine should be given candidate status for European Union membership, Macron, Scholz and Draghi affirmed this on Thursday last week during a visit to Kyiv.
EU has complete consensus as the EU grants Ukraine candidate status
EU ministers on Tuesday backed granting war-torn Ukraine candidate status to join the EU bloc ahead of a summit expected to formally greenlight the move later this week.
France’s Europe minister said. In fighting on the ground, Ukraine said it was encountering difficulty in the east as Russian forces captured more territory and intensified pressure on two cities.
Ukrainian and Russian forces remained entrenched in eastern Ukrainian battlegrounds going into Wednesday, a day of commemoration in both countries to mark the anniversary of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Months of war to finally get EU candidate status
Fighting in the war has favoured Russia in recent weeks because of its huge edge in artillery firepower, a fact Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged in a late Tuesday night address.
However, the drive for EU candidate status will soften the blows for the Ukrainians as this will provide hope that membership to the EU will provide protection for Ukraine and hold off further Russian attacks.
EU membership is a long process
Earlier this month Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo cautioned the Ukrainians into pushing for a swift EU membership. Suggesting the country needs to be ready for it.
“What Ukraine is doing is playing on something you could call seductive power. They’re seducing the world with the story, with what they stand for. I think it’s a very intelligent way of building a coalition.” Alexander De Croo PM Belgium
The Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo says he is “convinced” that European Union members will remain united in their approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because their strategy is the fruit of careful coordination.
While not excluding EU membership for Ukraine in the long term, De Croo believes it is a mistake to couple the demand with the country’s immediate needs
“The membership process is a long one and there’s a reason why,” he said. “It’s because we have developed such a vast array of rules in Europe that if someone joins the European Union, they need to be ready. What Ukraine needs today is support. We will give them support when the war is over. And reconstructing Ukraine has a material side, but there’s also an immaterial side. It’s building up institutions. It’s ensuring the rule of law. It’s fighting corruption and so on. But to me, that is something else than the membership process. Now, one doesn’t exclude the other, but the membership process is a long thing.”
