Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on June 17 in Brussels
Image: Imago
The EU Commission recommends that the member states declare Ukraine and Moldova to be candidates for EU membership. But before the negotiations can begin, both countries have a lot to work through.
Aeverything in the process of EU enlargement is political – which is precisely why it is being presented in as technical a manner as possible in Brussels. This dynamic could be studied under the magnifying glass on Friday when Ursula von der Leyen presented the recommendations of her EU Commission on the readiness for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to join. She had good news for Kyiv and Chişinău: They are to be given the status of candidate countries immediately, but must implement a series of further reforms before negotiations can actually begin. Tbilisi is different: The country has to take a back seat and first fulfill conditions before it can call itself a candidate. Did it possibly play a role that Ukraine is currently at war with Russia, while in Georgia there is “only” a conflict that has been frozen for fourteen years?
Von der Leyen gave the technocratically correct answer: “This whole process is performance-oriented. Everything is strictly according to the textbook.” An hour later, it was a senior official who, of all people, referred to the political dimension of the decision in favor of Ukraine. “It will give them a morale boost,” he said. The Ukrainians could not defeat the Russians with weapons, but they could with their motivation. So that also played a role – and it is certainly not in the acquis communautaire, the acquis in EU legal texts.