A “historic day”, a “crucial step on your path towards the EU”... There was no shortage of superlatives for EU leaders to describe their decision to grant EU candidate country status to Ukraine and Moldova and to recognise Georgia’s European perspective, on Thursday 23 June.
The European Council thus followed the recommendations of the European Commission, which were also supported by the European Parliament (see other news).
“It is a strong message, a message of unity, of determination on the geopolitical terrain”, stressed the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in front of the media. “Granting EU candidate status to Ukraine is a big step. No one expected this two months ago”, said the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to “the Ukrainian people, which are fighting to defend our values, their sovereignty, their territorial integrity”, and to Moldova, underlining “the political situation, (the) destabilisation attempts it is experiencing, and the generosity it showed in the context we just mentioned”.
However, the leaders warned that EU membership would not happen tomorrow. “The road to membership is still long (...) We must be clear. For Ukraine, the road will be long, very long, with enormous reforms that will take a long time ", said the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo. His Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, said that for negotiations to begin, there was still a lot to do.
The European Council therefore invited the Commission to report to the EU Council on the fulfilment of the conditions specified in its opinions in the framework of its regular enlargement package, scheduled for the autumn. “The EU Council will decide on the next steps when all these conditions are fully met”, the leaders warned.
Mr Rutte said that Georgia was “a step behind”, but that for Georgia “the glass is half full, not half empty”. The European Council therefore expressed its readiness to grant candidate country status to Georgia “once the priorities specified” in the Commission’s opinion have been addressed. “Georgia’s future is in the EU”, Mr Michel promised. According to the Slovak Prime Minister, Eduard Heger, Georgia “will soon take the necessary steps to become a candidate country”.
The leaders also recalled that each country’s progress towards the EU would depend on its “own merit in meeting the Copenhagen criteria, taking into consideration the EU’s capacity to absorb new members”.
Satisfaction from the leaders of the three countries
The presidents of the three countries, who met with the European Council, welcomed the EU Council’s decision.
“This is a unique and historical moment in EU-Ukraine relations”, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, reacted on Twitter in the wake of the decision. According to Mr Zelensky, the leaders took “one of the most important decisions for Ukraine in its 30 years as an independent state”. “This is the greatest step towards strengthening Europe that could be taken right now, in our time and under such difficult conditions, when the Russian war is testing our ability to preserve freedom and unity. (...) The Ukrainian and European flags will be together when we rebuild our state together after this war”, he stressed.
“The EU Member States have granted us candidate status. An unequivocal and strong signal of support for our citizens and Moldova’s European future”, said the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, who also described the day “historic”.
The granting of candidate status to both countries was also welcomed by the Georgian President, Salome Zurabishvili. “We are ready to work with determination over the coming months to achieve candidate status”, she added.
See the European Council conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/2aa (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Thomas Mangin, with Lionel Changeur and Mathieu Bion)