Leaders support Ukraine’s bid for EU membership

Europe has sent a powerful symbol of solidarity with Ukraine, with Brussels on Friday backing Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status.

French President Emmauel Macron assures Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of his full support. Picture: AFP

Europe has sent a powerful symbol of solidarity with Ukraine, with Brussels on Friday backing Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status.

With the European Commission’s backing, Ukraine could now be added to the list of countries vying for EU membership as early as next week, when member state leaders meet at a summit in Brussels summit.

All 27 EU leaders will have to agree to the candidacy, but the heads of the EU’s biggest members – France, Germany and Italy – already gave their full-throated support to the idea on Thursday, on a trip to Kyiv.

Then on Friday, the European Commission gave the executive’s formal backing to the bid – as well as that of neighbouring Moldova – and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen made her position clear by donning a striking jacket in Ukraine’s national colours.

“We all know that Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective. We want them to live with us for the European dream,” she said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately welcomed the decision as a “first step on the EU membership path that’ll certainly bring our victory closer”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, centre, at a joint press conference in Kyiv with, from left, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Picture: Getty Images

He thanked Ms von der Leyen for the commission’s “historic decision” and said he expected that EU leaders would give Ukraine a “positive result” at the June 23 to 24 summit.

Once Ukraine joins the EU candidates’ list — alongside several countries in the western Balkans — it could still take years to meet all the formal membership requirements, even if Kyiv prevails in the war.

“Yes, Ukraine should be welcomed as a candidate country — this is based on the understanding that good work has been done but important work also remains to be done,” Ms von der Leyen said.

In the meantime, the fighting continues, with Russian forces bombarding Ukrainian pockets of resistance in frontline Severodonetsk, including civilians holed up in a chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city. “The humanitarian situation across Ukraine — particularly in the eastern Donbas — is extremely alarming and continues to deteriorate rapidly,” the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said. It added that the situation was “particularly worrying in and around Severodonetsk”.

The city is in the Lugansk region, where governor Sergiy Gaiday called for a ceasefire, stating hundreds of civilians were trapped in the Azot chemical plant. “It is now impossible and physically dangerous to get out of the plant due to constant shelling and fighting. There are 568 people in the shelter,” he said.

AFP