Ambassadors from EU Member States (Coreper II) agreed on Monday 7 March to invite the European Commission to present an opinion on each of the applications for EU membership submitted last week by Ukraine (see EUROPE 12901/1), Moldova and Georgia (EUROPE 12903/11).
According to a European source, the decision was made after a discussion lasting about 30 minutes.
During this debate, according to this source, the Member States that intervened mentioned in particular the Ukrainian case and secondly those of Georgia and Moldova. Moreover, while some Member States would like to move quickly, others recalled that the accession process was based on merit and that it took time. The impact that a decision on the three-country process could have on the Western Balkan countries, which have been potential candidates or applicants for membership for years, was also mentioned by several Member States.
A written procedure has been launched to formally adopt the decision taken by the ambassadors. States must agree to draft letters from the EU Council Presidency seeking the opinion of the European Commission. According to one source, this procedure could take 24 to 48 hours.
According to the Commission, its opinion is a document that analyses the legal and constitutional framework of the country applying for membership and the implementation of its legislation in relation to all EU laws, standards and regulations. At the end of the process of preparing the opinion, “the timing of which depends on the administrative capacity of the country”, the Commission submits its opinion to the Council of the EU. No deadline is imposed on the Commission. To prepare its opinion, the Commission sends a series of questions to the state applying for membership (almost 3,900 questions for Bosnia and Herzegovina) and carries out expert missions to the country. In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than two and a half years elapsed between the Council’s request and the delivery of the opinion.
The three countries’ accession to the EU will also be discussed at the informal summit scheduled for 10-11 March in Versailles, France. This summit could be an opportunity for European leaders to make a political gesture, to give a signal to these three countries.
In their application letter of 28 February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Speaker of the Ukrainian Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk and Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal said they were “convinced that Ukraine, having paid such a heavy price for its choice to turn to Europe and for Europe’s security, will be able to move forward on the European path despite the obstacles of meeting all the accession criteria”, they added, calling on the EU “to immediately start the formal procedure that will lead to accession”.
See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/mv (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)