The European Union is betting everything on Ukraine’s accession

The Commission wants to hold accession talks with Kiev. But military setbacks and high costs provoke political resistance to it.

Birds have been whistling from the rooftops of Kiev and Brussels for weeks. On Wednesday, the European Commission will recommend in black and white that the EU begin accession negotiations with Ukraine. “We are already more than 90 percent of the way there,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech to the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev on Saturday.

But Ukraine’s path to EU membership is still very long. The clearer the prospect of achieving this becomes, the clearer the obstacles to such expansion become – and not just because Moldova and the six Western Balkan states of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are also up in the air. Ukraine can hope to join the union.

1 What reforms does the European Union demand from Ukraine and has it implemented them?

In June last year, the Commission set seven conditions for Kiev before recommending that member states open accession negotiations. Ukraine is likely to have met five of these conditions, Reuters reported on Monday. Firstly, reforming the selection of members of the Constitutional Court, and secondly, candidates for membership in the Supreme Judicial Council. Third, the strategy for radical police reform, especially in the field of combating money laundering. Fourth, a law to promote media freedom, in line with European Union law. Fifth, a law to limit the political and economic influence of a ruling minority.