Business as usual won’t do — Ukraine matters for the credibility of European integration

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In just a few days, the leaders of the European Union will meet in Brussels. These meetings of the European Council are normally routine affairs, but this time around nothing less than the future of Europe for decades to come is at stake. 

EU leaders need to decide on the next round of EU enlargement, the most complicated and difficult one thus far. 

It involves the fate of Ukraine, a country at war following the Russian invasion, as well as nine other candidate and aspirant countries, all of them in a delicate geo-strategic situation. 

Never before has it been so important that the EU makes this enlargement a success for it is also a historic opportunity to complete the unification of Europe, to anchor democracy across the continent, to enhance Europe’s security and defence against the dangers of a more confrontational global order and to make Europe a more powerful and influential actor on the world stage.

Yet as the EU moves forward it must avoid repeating the mistakes of the past two decades when too many hesitations, unfulfilled commitments and mixed messages cost us valuable time in the enlargement process, delayed necessary reforms and perpetuated old divisions and disputes that undermined the security of our neighbours to the East, and ultimately our own. 

EU and NATO membership should be used to strengthen our democracies

NATO promised membership to Ukraine and Georgia already back in ۲۰۰۸ but then did not follow through with Membership Action Plans or a clear timetable and roadmap. 

The EU intensified its relations with its eastern neighbours including Ukraine through Association Agreements and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas but at the same time refused these countries the membership perspective that it had given to the Western Balkans. 

The EU’s eastern neighbourhood was perceived by Russia as a grey zone in which Putin could interfere persistently through economic pressures and blackmail, hybrid warfare and even military action, as evidenced in Russia’s invasion of Georgia, illegal annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine. 

Our best defence against Russian aggression, as well as all the other instabilities that plague the eastern neighbourhood and the Western Balkans, is to turn the open door of NATO and the EU into a more dynamic and effective instrument for defending and strengthening our democracies.