Thomas Article on Ukraine EU Candidacy

ISPI Special Report "20 years after the ‘Big Bang’ enlargement: the EU looks East", 2024

Ukraine’s accession in the EU sets a precedent. Despite the ongoing war, large internal and external migration, economic hardships, and issues with political liberties and civil rights, the Ukrainian government continues with the efforts to start negotiations and obtain the EU membership as soon as possible. And the current European Commission and Parliament seem to be fully supportive of this endeavor. Ukraine’s “accession through war” writes a new page in the history of the EU and sets an accession precedent that demonstrates the Union’s ambition to be a much stronger geopolitical player.

Common Market Law Review, 2022

Social Europe, 2022

There has been a positive response to the appeal by the Ukrainian president for EU membership while the EU is faced with unprecedented geopolitical circumstances and fast-track accession is not foreseen in the treaties. A brief opinion piece arguing that it won’t come soon.

Common Market Law Review , 2022

Ukraine formally applied for EU membership on 28 February 2022 in the most tragic circumstances. President Zelenskyy signed the letter of application just a few days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country, and as Russian troops were only about 15 kilometres from his office in Kyiv. The formal application was an act of despair by a country already at war since 2014, and now fighting for its very survival. But the Ukrainian President's bold move was also salutary: the application considerably boosted the combatting morale of the Ukrainian nation, and successfully challenged the EU to provide extensive support and live up to its fundamental principles. Beyond the unprecedented measures the Union and its Member States took to assist Ukraine's war effort, the EU's reaction to the application-which was immediately followed by similar bids from Moldova and Georgia-was remarkably fast by any standards. It only took a week for the EU Council to activate the procedure of Article 49 TEU and invite the European Commission to issue its Opinions on the respective applications. The Commission too acted swiftly. 1 By 17 June 2022 it had already assessed the three applicants' ability to join the EU. Finding that "Ukraine is a European State which has given ample proof of its adherence to the values on which the European Union is founded", the Commission recommended to the Council that the country "should be given the perspective to become a member of the European Union", 2 and to the European Council that it should be granted the (much sought after) "candidate status"-a label that is not formally envisaged by the procedure of Article 49 TEU, but which has de facto become a milestone in the accession process.

Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2022

The European Union's successive enlargements had a qualitative impact on the nature of the integration organization, entailing changes in the agenda and priorities, institutions, and decision-making process and also changing the attitude of other international actors towards the European Union. The EU's decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine reflects a fundamental change in the logic and goals of the enlargement policy and will have a strategic impact on the design of integration processes both within the EU and on its periphery. This article is devoted to two aspects of the ongoing changes: (1) the geopoliticization of the enlargement policy and (2) the further development of differentiation processes and the prospect for new forms of external differentiation (partial membership).

2004

Focus Ukraine, 2023

Right after a politically stormy January in Ukraine, when some officials were sacked and others suspected of corruption, President Zelensky seized the opportunity thus created to promote Ukraine’s EU agenda in February. The anticorruption wave has cleared the way for Kyiv to increase pressure on Brussels, first, to provide more support in the face of Russia’s new military campaign, and second, to start negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership.

2003