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BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday agreed to open membership talks with Ukraine, an important sign of support at a moment when battlefield progress has stalled and U.S. commitment to continued funding for the war has wavered.
E.U. leaders gathered in Brussels are still debating a package for Ukraine worth more than $50 billion — aid seen as critical for Kyiv to keep fighting.
Although E.U. membership is realistically still many years away, it was a historic moment for Ukraine, which has pushed for years to join the bloc. “History is made by those who don’t get tired of fighting for freedom,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“I thank everyone who worked for this to happen and everyone who helped. I congratulate every Ukrainian on this day.”
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, called the decision “a very powerful political signal.”
The E.U. also announced it would open accession negotiations with Moldova, a neighbor of Ukraine that has also come under threats from Russia.
As U.S. support for Ukraine wobbles, E.U. takes up membership question
The Ukraine agreement came after several hours of negotiation and weeks of threats from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who insisted that he would block the decision.
Ultimately, Orban said in a video posted on X that he left the room to avoid participating in a “completely senseless, irrational and incorrect decision.”
“Hungary does not want to share in this bad decision, and for this reason, Hungary did not participate in the decision today,” he said.
On the eve of the summit, the European Commission announced it was unlocking more than $10 billion for Hungary that it had frozen in a novel effort to get member countries to abide by democratic principles.
The commission said Wednesday that Hungary had now met conditions related to judicial independence. Some insist the timing was coincidence. Others see it as giving in to blackmail.
“Hungary’s Orban seems to be emboldened by the political gridlock over further Ukraine funding in Washington and disappointment with Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” said Alissa de Carbonnel, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Europe and Central Asia program, in an email.
For Ukraine, the stakes could not be higher.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials and diplomats have tried, desperately, to shore up support in both the United States and Europe.
A delegation of senior Ukrainian officials visited Washington this week to plead with lawmakers there for more funding. But they left with little to show for the effort, as Senate Republicans once again blocked the proposed aid package.
Nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, with winter looming and supplies running low, financial support is needed to keep Ukraine running — and fighting — in the short-term, officials said. Progress on E.U. accession is also seen as critical, both for morale and for the message it sends to Russia.
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Ukrainian officials stressed that their country has worked hard to meet criteria set out by the European Commission, which in November recommended that the E.U. open accession negotiations with Ukraine, as well as Moldova.
On Thursday, Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, laid out Ukraine’s case on X, formerly Twitter, and called out Orban’s antics.
European Council decisions on Ukraine “are a piece of a much bigger puzzle,” she said. “The stakes are too high to have someone play with it.”
Despite Thursday’s the decision, membership remains a long way off.
Joining the E.U. typically takes many years. The political and legal systems of prospective members are scrutinized and slowly brought into compliance with E.U. rules.
Several countries, including Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia, have been in membership talks for years. Turkey applied to join in 1987 and officially remains a candidate, in theory, despite the fact that its odds look extraordinarily slim.
The fact that Ukraine is still at war makes its case more complicated. In Brussels, there is broad agreement that welcoming Ukraine would send an important signal to Russia, but much division about what welcoming Ukraine and other new members would mean for the E.U.
If Ukraine joined today, it would be the E.U.’s fifth-most-populous nation and its poorest by a wide margin, shifting the group’s balance of power and disrupting its internal market. Many believe key institutions would need to be rethought before Ukraine could join.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/14/ukraine-eu-summit-orban/