Ukraine wants to become a member of the European Union through a “new special procedure”. EU Commission President von der Leyen is also in favor of entering.
Ukraine has applied to join the EU. “We ask the European Union for Ukraine’s immediate accession under a new special procedure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Monday.
“Ukrainians have long since proved that they are part of the European community,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Twitter. “Now is the time to put it on paper. We thank our partners for their quick decisions and support.”
The head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke out in favor of Ukraine joining the EU on Sunday. When asked by a Euronews reporter about the country’s inclusion in the community, she said: “In time, they actually belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in.” She also emphasized that there are already several areas of cooperation.
According to his own statements, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi called the EU Commission President shortly after von der Leyen’s announcement. “We talked about concrete decisions to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capacities, about macro-financial aid and Ukraine’s membership in the EU,” Zelenskyy tweeted on Monday night.
On Monday evening, the heads of state of eight EU member states spoke out in favor of opening up the prospect of immediate accession to the EU for Ukraine. They demanded that the ex-Soviet republic, which was under attack from Russia, be granted the official status of a candidate country and that the negotiation process begin. This emerged from an open letter published by a spokesman for Czech President Milos Zeman on Monday evening.
“At this critical moment, we reaffirm our full solidarity with Ukraine and its people,” the letter said. The signatories include the Presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Selenskyj had pushed for a decision on Saturday. “It is a crucial moment to end once and for all the long-standing discussion and decide on Ukraine’s membership of the EU,” he wrote on Twitter. Ukraine has been working towards joining the Alliance for some time. This goal has also been enshrined in the constitution since 2019.
In order to help Ukraine in the short term, the EU put its severe sanctions against the Russian central bank into effect on Monday night. According to von der Leyens, they include a ban on transactions with the financial institution. In addition, all of the bank’s assets in the EU will be frozen to prevent them from being used to finance Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
