Soaring energy prices and the war in Ukraine are at the heart of a European summit which opened this followingnoon in Versailles, France. The discussion is likely to be dense given the importance of the issues that will be addressed today and tomorrow (Friday). This Versailles summit should address the possibility of new sanctions.
19h35 – “Send a signal” to Ukraine but without mentioning a rapid accession
The leaders of the EU member states, meeting in Versailles this Thursday evening and Friday, will certainly discuss Ukraine as “a member of our European family”, in the words of the President of the Commission. But without formally supporting any possibility of an accelerated procedure to obtain EU membership, it appears from the declarations during the arrivals at the informal summit. If Volodymyr Zelensky hoped that the EU would open the door to some special procedure to quickly integrate Ukraine, he will however more than likely be disappointed. “Being for or once morest Ukraine’s membership is not even on the agenda. (…) There is no ‘fast track'”, summed up Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on arrival.
In the declaration that the 27 should publish during the summit, “it should be indicated that we want to work more intensively with Ukraine, but that is completely separate from the question of membership”. There is therefore no question of mixing up membership, a long process with complex geopolitical implications, and the desire, which seems to be shared, to deepen concrete collaboration with Ukraine in the short and medium term, on the basis, among other things, of the association agreement which already exists between the two players (entered into force in 2017). Emmanuel Macron confirmed it, before joining the meeting: it will be a question of Thursday evening “to send a signal”, but without denying the complexity of the question of enlargement. “Can we now open an accession procedure with a country at war? I don’t think so”.
19h30 – Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission at the microphone of RTL INFO
“It is truly a pivotal moment. On the one hand, you see an incredible unity on the part of Europeans and a determination to act quickly. On the other hand, we have this terrible, horrifying war and the incredible cruelty of Putin This is the moment when democracy must show that it is strong and more durable than a dictatorship.”
6:00 p.m. – “Europe will change even faster and stronger with the war” in Ukraine, says Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday condemned “with the greatest firmness“the Russian bombardment of a facility housing a maternity and pediatric hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, which is”an outrageous act of war“. L’“manifest purpose” of this bombardment was “to kill civilians, women and children in particular“, added Mr. Macron, saying to himself “worried” and “pessimistic” on the conflict in Ukraine, ahead of an EU summit in Versailles, near Paris. “Europe will change even faster and stronger with the war,” the French president also said.
5:50 p.m. – “No rapid procedure for joining the EU”
There is “no rapid procedure for EU accession“, recalled on Thursday the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Versailles, while Ukraine submitted an application in the hope of joining “without delay” the bloc of Twenty-Seven.
“We can’t give Ukrainians the impression that anything can happen overnight“, also warned his Luxembourg counterpart, Xavier Bettel, arriving for a European summit near Paris, which intends to reaffirm the EU’s support for the country attacked by Russia and give it a prospect of rapprochement with Europe on the long term.
> LIVE – War in Ukraine: Russian tanks reach the northeast edge of Kiev
De Croo backs EU-wide gas price freeze
Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he was in favor of an EU-wide gas price freeze on Thursday. If the market becomes irrational, we must intervene, explained the head of government to the Chamber before he left for Versailles where the European summit is being held.
The Russian invasion pushed up already skyrocketing energy prices. “I believe in the free market but today it is behaving hysterically and completely irrationally.”, underlined the liberal. In his eyes, there can be no question of government intervention which, in the end, would benefit Russia. “If the stock market behaves irrationally, then we suspend the stock market. If the market behaves irrationally, then we must intervene“, he said.
