Ukraine’s EU candidacy gets boost before summit
Zelenskyy expresses optimism over bloc’s decision in Brussels
KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official overseeing the country’s push to join the European Union said Wednesday that she’s “100%” certain all 27 EU nations will approve Ukraine’s EU candidacy during a summit this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed similar optimism, calling it a “crucial moment” for Ukraine. Ukraine’s membership bid is the top order of business for EU leaders meeting in Brussels.
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said the decision could come as soon as Thursday, when the leaders’ summit starts.
Stefanishyna said Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden had been skeptical about starting accession talks with Ukraine while it is fighting Russia’s invasion but are now supportive. Asked how confident she was that Ukraine would be accepted as an EU candidate, she said: “The day before the summit starts, I can say 100%.”
The EU’s executive arm threw its weight behind Ukraine’s candidacy last week. Stefanishyna described the European Commission’s endorsement as “a game changer” that had cut the ground from under “the legs of those most hesitating.”
EU candidate status, which can be granted only if the existing member countries agree unanimously, is the first step toward membership. It does not provide any security guarantees or an automatic right to join the bloc.
Ukraine’s full membership will depend on whether the war-torn country can satisfy political and economic conditions. Potential newcomers need to demonstrate that they meet standards on democratic principles and must absorb 80,000 pages of rules covering everything from trade and immigration to fertilizers and the rule of law.
Stefanishyna said she thinks Ukraine could be an EU member within years, not the decades that some European officials have forecast. “We’re already very much integrated in the European Union,” she said. “We want to be a strong and competitive member state, so it may take from two to 10 years.”
To help candidates, the bloc can provide technical and financial assistance. European officials have said that Ukraine has already implemented about 70% of the EU rules, norms and standards, but have also pointed to corruption and the need for deep political and economic reforms.
In a virtual talk to Canadian university students Wednesday, Zelenskyy described the Brussels summit as “two decisive days” that, like Stefanishyna, he thinks will result in approval of Ukraine’s EU candidacy.
“That is very crucial moment for us. For some people in my team are saying this is like going into the light from the darkness,” the Ukrainian president said. “In terms of our army and society, this is a big motivator, a big motivation factor for the unity and victory of the Ukraine people.”
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he spoke with Zelenskyy on
Wednesday and guaranteed him that Belgium would support Ukraine’s candidate status.
“Considerable efforts will be needed, especially in the fight against corruption and the establishment of an effective rule of law,” De Croo said. “But I am convinced that it is precisely the (postwar) reconstruction of Ukraine that will provide opportunities to take important steps forward.”
In other developments:
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said a Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier
accompanying him appear to have been “coldly executed” during the first weeks of the war in Ukraine as they searched in Russianoccupied woods for a missing camera drone. The group sent investigators to the woods north of the capital, Kyiv, where the bodies of Maks Levin and serviceman Oleksiy Chernyshov were found April 1.
Russian forces have captured three villages in the contested eastern region of Ukraine. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the villages are a few miles from Lysychansk, the last city in his province still fully under
Ukrainian control. The Russians have also taken a strategic coal village, Toshkivka, enabling them to intensify attacks, Haidai said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian forces killed up to 500 Ukrainian servicemen in strikes Tuesday against a Mykolaiv shipbuilding plant. The ministry also said Ukrainian forces evacuated up to 30 wounded and eight dead U.S. and British foreign fighters from near Mykolaivka, in the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed those claims.