Irina Taran & Elizaveta Komarova
Volodymyr Zelensky called on Brussels to prove that the European Union is together with Ukraine. He stated this during his online speech during a meeting of the European Parliament. According to him, the EU “will definitely be stronger” with Ukraine. Earlier, Zelensky appealed to the European Union with a request to “immediately” accept his country into the union “under a new special procedure,” and also signed an application for the state to join the union. According to experts, Zelensky’s initiative on a new special procedure for Ukraine’s accession to the EU is purely populist in nature and is intended only to improve his image among the population. Analysts believe that the state has no chance of becoming part of the association, and the EU is simply playing along with Kiev.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky urged Brussels to prove that the European Union is together with Ukraine. He stated this during his online speech at a meeting of the European Parliament. “With us, the European Union will definitely be stronger, without you Ukraine will be lonely. We proved our strength, we proved that we are at least the same as you. Prove that you are with us, prove that you are not letting us go, prove that you are really Europeans,” Zelensky said on March 1.
According to him, the Ukrainian side is fighting to be an equal member of Europe. Earlier on the same day, Ukraine’s representative to the EU, Vsevolod Chentsov , announced the registration of an application for the country’s accession to the EU. “I handed Ukraine’s application for membership in the European Union, signed by the President of Ukraine @ZelenskyyUa, to Philippe Leglis-Costa, Permanent Representative to the EU of France, which presides over the EU Council. The application has been registered. The review procedure has begun,” he wrote on his Twitter page.
The fact that the application is being “considered” was also stated by the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak. The day before, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky called on the EU to accept Ukraine into the association under a “new special procedure”.
“We appeal to the European Union regarding the urgent accession of Ukraine under a new special procedure. We are grateful to our partners for being by our side, but our goal is to be together with all Europeans, and most importantly, to be on an equal footing. I’m sure it’s fair. I’m sure we deserve it. I am sure that all this is possible, ”he said in his video message. On the same day, Zelensky signed an application for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, and with the head of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal signed a joint statement. According to the press service of the office of the Ukrainian leader, the documents say that Kyiv “resp-ects the values enshrined in Art. 2 of the Treaty on E-uropean Union, and has the honor to apply for membership in accordance with Art. 49 of this agreement.
“Ukraine, which has paid such a huge price for the European choice and the security of Europe, will be able to go this way,” the press service of the office cites the content of the documents. It is also noted that the “success of European integration” of Ukraine will allegedly be a “significant contribution” to the stability and security of the European continent.
In addition, on February 28, during a telephone conversation with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Zelensky discussed, in his words, “concrete decisions” on Ukraine’s membership in the EU. Earlier, on February 26, the Ukrainian leader called on the European Union to resolve the issue of Ukra-ine’s membership in the association.
“This is a decisive moment in order to close the long-standing discussion once and for all and decide on Ukraine’s membership in the EU,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter following talks with the head of the European Council, Charles Michel. It is worth noting that so far the Ukrainian side has been preparing to submit an official application for EU membership in 2024 in order to join it in the 2030s.
The position of the EU countries and Brussels Recall, on February 23, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian leader Gitanas Nauseda announced that they would seek to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for joining the European Union. This is stated in the final statement of the “Lublin Triangle” (Warsaw, Vilnius and Kyiv).
“We emphasize that, given the progress in the implementation of the Association Agreement and internal reforms, as well as the current security challenges, Ukraine deserves the status of a candidate for EU membership, and the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Poland will support Ukraine in achieving this goal,” says in the document. On February 26, Polish President Andrzej Duda on his Twitter spoke in favor of Ukraine’s early accession to the European Union.
“Candidate status should be granted immediately, and membership negotiations should start immediately after that,” he said. The next day, the head of the European Commission, von der Leyen , in an interview with Euronews, said that Brussels eventually wants to see Ukraine in the ranks of the EU.
“Ukraine is participating in some European processes, for example, in the integration of the Ukrainian market into the EU single market. We cooperate very closely, for example, in the energy sector and in other areas. Over time, Ukraine should join the EU, this country is one of us, and we want to see it in the European family, ”she said. After that, on February 28, the heads of eight EU countries – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – called on the EU to take steps to immediately grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country and start the process of negotiations on joining the union.
“We are deeply convinced that Ukraine deserves to immediately receive the prospect of joining the EU. Therefore, we call on the EU member states to mobilize political support at the highest level for Ukraine and provide an opportunity for EU institutions to take steps to immediately recognize Ukraine as an EU candidate country and start the negotiation process,” the states said in a joint statement. published on the website of the President of Poland. Hungary also supported the initiative of these eight EU countries, urging Brussels to include this issue on its agenda, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó.
After that, on March 1, at a meeting of the Euro-pean Parliament, a number of European officials raised the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Thus, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said that the EP welcomes Zelensk-y’s application for the status of a candidate for membership in the association.
“We recognize the European perspective of Ukraine. As our resolution makes clear, Mr. President, we welcome Ukraine’s application for candidate status and will work in that direction. We must look to the future together,” she said. In turn, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that the EU Council would seriously analyze Kyiv’s request for membership in the European Union. At the same time, he stressed that “there are different views” on this issue. In addition, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU and Ukraine are now closer than ever, but “there is still a long way ahead.”
“During our last conversation, he (Zelensky. – RT ) again reminded me of the dream of his people to join our union. Today, the EU and Ukraine are closer than ever. There is still a long way ahead,” said the head of the European Commission. “But I am sure that no one in this room can doubt that the people who so boldly defend our European values have a place in our European family.”
“Playing out a scene”
As Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, noted in an interview with RT, Zelensky’s initiative on a “new special procedure” for Ukraine’s accession to the EU “is purely populist in nature.” “It is quite possible that it has been agreed with Western partners. Zelensky came up with such an initiative to improve his image in the eyes of his own population. This is a kind of PR for the Ukrainian leader in the new realities. But behind this, in addition to PR, nothing, in general, is worth it. There is no chance of Ukraine joining the European Union,” the expert said. Nemensky drew attention to the fact that so far only nine EU countries out of 27 have expressed their readiness to immediately grant Ukraine the status of a candidate country and start negotiations on joining the EU.
“On the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, there is no consolidated unity in the union, which cannot be done without,” the analyst said. Nemensky also predicted that in the future in the EU, its main members would not support such a decision. “And this is understandable. Ukraine is not suitable for any parameters to obtain the status of a country – a member of the European Union. So now it is rather a move in the information war. There is no real entry process. Just as Ukraine did not have, in fact, any prospects in terms of European integration, it does not have it now and will not have it in the future. After all, Kyiv in recent years has only been engaged in the degradation and destruction of its own society, ”the expert noted.
Nemensky added that under the current conditions, the European Union is also “going through a crisis”, and therefore it “clearly does not plan to expand and take into its ranks such a problematic country as Ukraine, for objective reasons.” “The EU is now too weak both organizationally and economically to carry out such expansions,” the analyst said.
In turn, political scientist, economist Oleksandr Dudchak called the statements of Zelensky and his entourage on the topic of the EU “an exclusively political action” that has no real relation to membership in the association. “And in the European Union now they are playing along with Kiev, but nothing more. All this will be used by Kiev as an important information occasion within the country. The Ukrainian authorities want to demonstrate that the EU is with them and supports them. For this, an application was submitted to join the association, and a number of statements were made on this topic,” the expert noted in a comment to RT.
However, as Dudchak notes, today Ukraine has not only not become more attractive to Brussels as a potential EU member, “but rather the opposite.” “Now the country is in such a position that it is not yet clear what its borders, the state of the economy will be. At the same time, no document signed between Ukraine and the EU has indicated the real prospect of the country’s membership in the association before,” the analyst noted.
Dudchak admitted that Ukraine could be granted the status of a candidate member of the EU, “however, things will not go further than this.” “In the EU, not everyone agrees on Ukraine’s membership,” the analyst said.
Dudchak also did not rule out that there will be more members of the community supporting Ukraine’s accession to the EU, but this, in his opinion, will lead to nothing. “This is unimportant. In the EU, they are now playing a scene: they just need to show that Europe supports Ukraine in unison. In fact, this is an exclusively political event that has nothing to do with the real future membership of Ukraine in the EU,” the expert concluded.
