By going together to kyiv, on June 16, the heads of state and government of Germany, France, Italy and Romania did not only want to recall the unfailing support provided by The European Union in Ukraine since the start of the war launched by Russia, there will soon be four months ago. The time is no longer only for symbols, while continues to sound the crash of weapons. The Ukrainians ask for military aid to keep without breaking in the face of the invader. But they just as much need a political horizon that restores its meaning to the enormous sacrifices granted today in the name of values placed at the heart of the European project.
Accused of lukewarm, ambiguity, or at the head of countries whose public opinion already expresses a start of weariness of war, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi knew each other in particular on this imperative of CAP Politique . On the eve of important deadlines (the commission pronounced on the subject the next day, before a decisive European council, on June 23 and 24, where unanimity will be imperative), they went as far as possible by pleading for the candidate status is “immediately” granted to kyiv. Even if this status does not imply any provision of security, this commitment opens the way to a major political breakthrough. It constitutes a personal victory for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who set himself this goal.
As promising as it may be, this perspective only allows to respond imperfectly to the emergency. The heaviness and length of the membership process come up against the time of war and its consequences. Never in the past a country, reputed to be well before the Russian invasion for the fragility and the weaknesses of its institutions, has engaged in such a marathon in the middle of a conflict which ravages it and blurs its borders.
anteroom
In Strasbourg, on May 9, Emmanuel Macron, as president of the Council of the European Union, had sketched the track of a “European political community” which could in particular constitute an anteroom for candidates for membership . This idea was coldly welcomed by those, including in Ukraine, who especially saw it as a garage track.
Such a structure, discussed and amended, could however be useful to allow the Ukrainians to associate politically to the EU without waiting for the end of a long process, which could run over a decade. Provided however that it is not a spare solution, but rather an additional track of the membership process, it could also provide a framework for European support from which the Ukrainians already benefit and which can only increase massively if The twenty-seven hold their commitments for the reconstruction of the country.
A reflection on enlargement is all the more necessary since the case of Ukraine is not the only one at stake. Other countries, including Northern Macedonia, Montenego or Albania, L ‘have preceded and would hardly live to be demoted in the order of European priorities. The status of candidate “will also imply that the situation of Western Balkans and neighborhood be taken into account, in particular Moldova,” said Emmanuel Macron. This last country, which already experiences separatist tensions of transnistry, fears to be destabilized by the conflict. The situation requires Europeans to be inventive. Now.