EU leaders agreed at a summit on Thursday to convert Ukraine and Moldova candidates to join the bloc, a historic measure in Brussels following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today marks a crucial step on your path to the EU,” tweeted European Council President Charles Michel, who chaired the leaders’ meeting. “Our future is together,” he added.
The symbolic step, taken by Brussels in record time, is a victory for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government’s strongly pro-Western integration agenda.
In a video address Zelenskyy said: “This is the biggest step towards strengthening Europe that could be taken right now, in our time, and precisely in the context of the war in Russia, which is putting to test our ability to preserve freedom and unity. “
He added: “Thanks to the summit of all European leaders. Thanks to our heroes, to everyone and to all those who defend the independence of Ukraine and the freedom of Europe with weapons in hand.”
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff of the President of Ukraine in a tweet said: “We thank the Ukrainian people and the army. [for] having demonstrated the importance of European values ”.
Referring to the country’s fierce but costly resistance to the large-scale invasion of Russia, which has claimed thousands of lives in four months, Yermak said: “We are paying a high price.”
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The move by EU governments comes almost nine years after pro-EU protests erupted in Kyiv against the then-pro-Russian president. These sparked a protest movement that ended with his dismissal and indirectly led to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Putin’s renewed invasion of the rest of the country this spring.
However, the decision is very unlikely to lead to a sudden accession. The leaders set a number of conditions related to the rule of law, corruption and the judiciary that Ukraine must meet to advance to the next stage of accession negotiations.
Yermak said Zelenskyy’s administration was “ready for the necessary reforms” needed for Ukraine to formally become a member of the EU.
The most recent country to join the EU, Croatia, took nine years to move from candidate status to membership.
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Moldova, another former Soviet state, was also recognized as an EU candidate at Thursday’s summit, also with additional conditions before it could move towards full negotiations.
Georgia, which applied to join in the weeks following Putin’s invasion, was told it could only be granted if it first met a number of conditions.
The long-awaited decisions were agreed informally by the ambassadors of the EU member states at a meeting on Monday, but they needed the endorsement of the bloc leaders.
This Thursday’s deal was stalled for several hours by demands from Central European countries, including Austria and Hungary, to give Bosnia and Herzegovina the same status as Georgia. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said: “Bosnia was at the center of the debate for 3.5 hours.”
The European Commission was urged to help the former Yugoslav republic with its pending reforms before it was granted candidate status at the end of the year.