the European Union, which is meeting at a summit in Versailles today and tomorrow, must send Ukraine “a political signal on its belonging to the European family”as well as Georgia and Moldova, but cannot launch an accelerated accession procedure, said the Elysée on Wednesday.
For France, these three countries need “inventing new forms of rapprochement with the EU” with “a strengthening of cooperation in the economic, educational and research fields as well as in political cooperation”. Their heads of state might, for example, “be associated with European Council meetings more regularly”.
The EU has already sent them a first signal by launching on Monday the procedure for examining the applications for membership that these three countries submitted just following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when it had taken two years to respond to that of Romania.
“But there cannot be an accelerated accession procedure, which takes years, because accession means a convergence of economies, compliance with a certain number of criteria and constraints for the State which joins, which must have a strong enough economy to enter”adds the Elysée.
“Membership is not a decision that can be made in a weekend”pleaded an adviser to the French president. “We understand this Ukrainian request and we want to tell the Ukrainians that they are part of the European family, but it is not an accession procedure that will end the war”.
Paris also underlines that the Balkan countries which have been waiting for years in the antechamber of the EU “wouldn’t understand”.
