Published
Monday 27 June 2022 – 14:29
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Ukraine and the EU have become engaged. On Thursday last week, Ukraine and Moldova became candidate countries for the EU. It implies a commitment on both sides to negotiate with good will solutions that integrate Ukraine into the European Community.
The European Community. That’s what it’s all about. Because that is where Ukraine proves every day that they belong, and that commits Europe to take responsibility, also for Ukraine. For so brutal, and so simple, is reality.
Former President in the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said in 2014 that Ukraine was further away from EU membership than New Zealand. He had a point. Of course, Ukraine is far too poor, far too corrupt, and moreover drawn into a bloody war which, under normal circumstances, makes Ukraine more distant from EU membership than the country on the other side of the globe.
But the circumstances are far from normal, even though the membership itself is probably several years away. That is why the EU has no choice. The Union would not have been itself if it had not opened up for Ukrainian membership. The EU is founded on the idea of peace and development in Europe, which is now particularly committed.
The best arguments for Ukrainian membership of the EU are the consequences if the union had closed the door. It would be a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is right that Ukraine – unlike other poor and corrupt countries in Europe that have become members – is not an independent European country. The EU would then have largely confirmed that Ukraine has no right to be a separate country, but is only a natural extension of Russia itself, which is Putin’s point. Of course, a civilized Europe can never accept that.
The fact that Ukraine is at war can be used both ways. But the Russian reaction to the news last week was subdued. It is NATO, the military branch of the West, that is the thorn in the side, not the EU. Despite the fact that an EU membership will change the values of the Ukrainians much more than a NATO membership. For it is in the EU that the values - both economic and ideological – lie above all, and not in security policy or the military. This is what will turn the Ukrainians towards the West, and make the spiritual community Ukraine and Russia have had for centuries disappear.
This emphasizes once again the historic defeat of Putin’s Russia in this senseless war. What Ukraine Putin should win back with war will instead soon be rooted in Western values, both economic and ideological. The EU is right to open up to Ukrainian membership now.
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