French president Emmanuel Macron said that it will take decades for Ukraine to be accepted into the European Union (EU). Macron suggested that Ukraine could join a parallel European community as it awaits the EU’s decision on its membership.
Macron while delivering a speech to the EU parliament in Strasbourg suggested that if Ukraine decided to join the parallel European community then the community could also host non-EU members who could be part of Europe’s security architecture.
“We all know perfectly well that the process to allow Ukraine to join would take several years indeed, probably several decades. That is the truth, unless we decide to lower the standards for accession. And rethink the unity of our Europe,” the French president was quoted as saying by news agency BBC.
He is not wrong. For a nation to join the EU it has to show that it has a robust economy and is not plagued by corruption and also adhere to the social, political and economic principles that the EU abides by. Ukraine, even before facing the 2022 Russian invasion and the 2014 Crimean annexation, was a nation fighting corruption – a claim made several times by former US president Donald Trump.
Also it is noteworthy that Ukraine began the process of membership the same week that Russia began its so-called military operation on its soil.
The EU executive committee next month will publish its initial opinion on Ukraine’s bid.
It should also be mentioned that both the EU and Ukraine dragged their feet when it came to Ukraine becoming a member of the bloc. Corrupt regimes under pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, the indecisiveness of the government led by Viktor Yushchenko and the EU’s own findings regarding the inefficiency of Ukraine’s government institutions to fight the authority by oligarchs and corruption also stood in the way of Ukraine.
Ukraine, in 2003, asked the EU to provide closer economic integration and enhanced political cooperation to Russia, Ukraine and Moldova in return for political, economic, and institutional reform based on “shared values. The EU did not find the conditions favourable.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has made several impassioned pleas to the EU to ensure that Ukraine’s bid is fast-processed but even if Macron would not have made the statement, it is unlikely that the nation would be made a member of the bloc if it fails to adhere to the set of principles set by the EU.
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