BRUSSELS
\nEuropean leaders formally accepted Ukraine as a candidate to join the EU on Thursday, a bold geopolitical move triggered by Russia\u2019s invasion of Kyiv but a reminder that the 27-nation bloc will need a major overhaul as it looks to enlarge again.
\nAlthough it could take Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova more than a decade to qualify for membership, the decision at a two-day EU summit is symbolic step that signals the bloc\u2019s intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.
\n\u201cA historic moment,\u201d European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted. \u201cToday marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cOur future is together.\u201d
\nThe move, which also sees Moldova being granted candidate status, kick-starts the EU\u2019s most ambitious expansion since it welcomed Eastern European states after the Cold War.
\n\u201cAll the people in Ukraine are watching and waiting for this decision,\u201d said Ivan Zichenko, a 34-year-old Ukrainian from the devastated city of Kharkiv, who now lives in Brussels.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very, very important to raise their morale,\u201d he said as a few dozen people chanted \u201cUkraine is Europe\u201d at a rally outside the Brussels building where EU leaders were meeting.
\nBehind the triumphant rhetoric, however, there is concern within the EU about how the bloc can remain coherent as it continues to enlarge.
\nAfter starting in 1951 as an organisation of six countries to regulate industrial production, the EU now has 27 members that face complex challenges from climate change and the rise of China to a war on their own doorstep.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin says his \u201cspecial military operation\u201d launched in Ukraine in late February was partly necessitated by Western encroachment into what Russia characterises as its rightful geographical sphere of influence.
\nThe EU\u2019s green light \u201cis a signal to Moscow that Ukraine, and also other countries from the former Soviet Union, cannot belong to the Russian spheres of influence,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s EU ambassador Chentsov Vsevolod told Reuters earlier on Thursday.
\n\u201cThere are Ukrainian soldiers calling home from the front line and asking: what is happening with our candidate status? It\u2019s amazing how important it is for Ukrainian people.\u201d
\nBALKAN FRUSTRATION
\nWhile Ukraine and Moldova were expected to be welcomed into the EU\u2019s waiting room, Georgia was given \u201ca European perspective\u201d but told it must fulfil conditions before winning candidate status.
\nReticence over EU enlargement has slowed progress towards membership for a group of Balkans countries \u2013 Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia \u2013 whose leaders met their EU counterparts in Brussels in the morning.
\nAlbanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said as he arrived at a meeting with EU leaders ahead of the bloc\u2019s summit: \u201cWelcome to Ukraine, it\u2019s a good thing to give candidate status, but I hope the Ukrainian people will not have much illusions about this.\u201d
\nA draft of the summit statement showed that EU leaders will again give \u201cfull and unequivocal commitment to the EU membership perspective of the Western Balkans\u201d.
\nHowever, Ukraine\u2019s fast track to formal candidate status has only served to increase their feeling of being sidelined, which carries the risk for the EU that Russia and China extend their influence into the Balkan region. read more
\n\u201cThe more the EU doesn\u2019t give a unified and a clear sign to the Western Balkans, the more other malign factors will use that space and that vacuum,\u201d Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said.
\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this week that the EU must \u201creform its internal procedures\u201d to prepare for the accession of new members, singling out the need for key issues to be agreed with a qualified majority rather than by unanimity.
\nThe requirement for unanimity often frustrates EU ambitions because member states can block decisions or water them down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS European leaders formally accepted Ukraine as a candidate to join the EU on Thursday, a bold geopolitical move triggered by Russia\u2019s invasion of Kyiv but a reminder that the 27-nation bloc will need a major overhaul as it looks to enlarge again. Although it could take Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova more than a decade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2064,8960,456],"class_list":{"0":"post-267979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-historic-moment","10":"tag-ukraine"},"yoast_head":"\n