Ukraine's EU membership: still some way off

[Celerity]

There has been a positive response to the appeal by the Ukrainian president for EU membership. But it won’t come soon.

https://socialeurope.eu/ukraines-eu-membership-still-some-way-off



On Sunday, the fourth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appealed for it to be granted membership of the European Union. On Tuesday, members of the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved—with 637 votes in favour—a resolution which called for a range of measures and seemed to offer a European perspective to the country.

Ukraine expressed its interest in the EU soon after declaring its independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991. This was understood as a foreign-policy reorientation which would open new prospects for co-operation with western countries and bring modernisation and socio-economic development.

It was not however until after the Eastern Partnership was established in 2009 that the EU-Ukraine relationship was institutionalised, through the conclusion in 2014 of the Association Agreement. The agreement is a comprehensive document—circa 2,140 pages, including 46 annexes, three protocols and a joint declaration—published in the Official Journal. The detailed provisions imply alignment of Ukrainian laws and policies with the EU acquis, which requires extensive legislative and regulatory approximation, including sophisticated mechanisms to secure the uniform interpretation and effective implementation of relevant EU legislation.

‘One of us’

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told Euronews on Sunday that Ukraine is ‘one of us and we want them in the European Union’. But she does not have the power to grant any country accession, nor even to grant official candidate status. Such decisions are taken by the 27 member states in unanimity, after the applicant makes a formal request and the commission gives an official opinion.

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