Ukraine, the 28th Member State?

It is difficult to know how things will stand with the Russo-Ukrainian conflict when this summer issue appears, but, as we go to press, it is highly unlikely that the situation will have returned to what it was in February 2022. Will the borders of Ukraine have moved again by comparison with what they were in 2014 before Russia annexed Crimea? Will Vladimir Putin’s troops have retreated? But if President Volodymyr Zelensky is still in power, discussion of Ukraine’s possible entry into the European Union will still be as live as it is currently. Is such a prospect imaginable? On what terms and what timescale? In this ‘European Chronicle’, Jean-François Drevet puts Ukraine’s fast-track request to join the Union into perspective, both in geopolitical and institutional terms. He reminds us, in particular, how accession processes are long and complex (several Balkan countries have been patiently waiting in the accession antechamber for a number of years) and require detailed preparation and negotiation between the candidate and the EU; he also stresses the very special context represented by the ambitions and security approach of Ukraine’s Russian neighbour. So many elements that do not conduce toward a fast-track approach, but make it more likely that there will be increased financial and material aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia before — once the situation has been stabilized — consideration of Kyiv’s accession demand in accordance with the usual process previously followed by the EU, though possibly preceded by an intensified association period.