BRUSSELS: The EU’s executive urged the bloc to move ahead with Ukraine’s membership push and slammed Georgia for backsliding, as Brussels unveiled its annual scorecard for countries seeking to join. Russia’s attack of Ukraine has breathed fresh life into long-stalled efforts to incorporate more members into the 27-nation EU. Brussels sees enlargement as a geostrategic priority in the face of the Kremlin’s aggression and increasing competition with China.
Ten countries are currently angling to join the club — though some such as Türkiye are essentially frozen in their tracks. Leading the pack of EU hopefuls are the Balkan duo Montenegro and Albania, while Ukraine and Moldova have made key strides after lodging their applications in 2022. “Given the pace of some candidate countries, a successful enlargement is a realistic possibility within the coming years,” EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos told lawmakers. “The coming year will be a moment of truth for all candidate countries.”
Brussels says it wants the green light this year for Ukraine and Moldova to press on with formal negotiations, but Hungary’s Russia-friendly leader Viktor Orban has been stalling on Kyiv’s bid. “Amid the challenges caused by Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine has demonstrated its commitment to its EU path, moving forward on key reforms,” Kos said. “It will be essential to sustain this momentum and prevent any risk of backsliding, in particular on anti-corruption,” she said.
Joining the EU involves years of painstaking negotiations and major reforms, and countries can be stymied by political blockages. Montenegro says it wants to complete talks by end 2026, while Albania is pressing to wrap them up in 2027 and Ukraine and Moldova are eyeing 2028. Even once a candidate country clears all negotiating hurdles, joining still requires unanimous support from the EU’s existing member states.
While there was positive feedback for some in the annual review, the picture for Caucasus nation Georgia was grim as the government has cracked down on opponents and shifted towards Moscow. The EU has already de facto halted the country’s bid despite widespread backing among the population for the European aspirations. “In Georgia, the situation has sharply deteriorated, with serious democratic backsliding,” Kos said. “The commission considers Georgia a candidate country in name only.”
Elsewhere, she said, the pace of reforms in Serbia “has slowed down significantly” despite the insistence from officials that Belgrade remains intent on joining. While the EU eyes admitting more members in the coming years, it is also seeking to push ahead with reforms to ensure the bloc can still function.
Kos said that Brussels would seek to impose “stronger safeguards” in any future accession treaties signed with new countries to ensure they do not slide away from democracy once they are members. The EU has learned a painful lesson as countries such as Hungary have stymied the bloc’s working while backtracking on rule of law. Brussels is also weighing whether it should withhold from new members the right to veto decisions in areas like foreign policy for several years after they join.
Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he visited troops near the embattled city of Pokrovsk, as Kyiv scrambles to defend the logistics hub that Russia has tried to capture for months. “I met with our warriors at the command post of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine ‘Azov,’ which is conducting a defensive operation in the Dobropillia sector,” Zelensky said on social media, referring to a town some 20 kilometres from Pokrovsk. — AFP
