As the contentious decision about whether to grant Ukraine EU candidate status approaches, experts say Brussels should take other less divisive steps that would offer more concrete progress toward integrating Ukraine into European structures, Reporting Democracy reports.
Over the coming weeks, the European Commission is expected to deliver its opinion on Ukraine’s application, opening the way for a possible decision by EU leaders to grant it candidate status at the June 23–24 summit.
Yet, despite overwhelming support for Ukraine in its fight for survival against Russian aggression, many of the 27 member states are leery of diminishing the accession process just to make a symbolic gesture to a country in need.
The process of joining the EU broadly consists of three stages: when a country is ready it becomes an official candidate for membership, though this does not necessarily mean formal negotiations have been opened; the candidate moves on to formal membership negotiations, a process that requires adopting and implementing the entire body of EU law and regulations; and finally, when the negotiations and accompanying reforms have been completed to the satisfaction of both sides, the EU member states ratify membership.
The length of time this process takes has varied. The last country to join, Croatia, applied for membership in 2003 and joined a decade later, in 2013.
