BRUSSELS—Even though Russia has lost influence and friends since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, the nuclear superpower still holds sway over several of its neighbors in Europe and keeps others in uneasy neutrality.
The Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the humanitarian tragedy it provoked over the past two weeks have raised a Western outcry of heartfelt support and spawned calls for a fundamental rethink of how the geopolitical map of Europe should be redrawn in the future.
“The European Union is going to be much stronger with us. So that’s for sure,” Zelenskyy said in an emotional live transmission to the European Parliament on Tuesday. The violence of the Russian invasion also spooked historically neutral countries like Sweden and Finland, which now see a surge in support for joining Nato and in Helsinki’s case unshackling itself from a Russian influence so heavy that it became a political moniker—“Finlandization.”
Even if support for Ukraine is overwhelming among the EU member states, granting membership is anything but automatic. The leaders of eight eastern member states officially said Ukraine “deserves receiving an immediate EU accession perspective.” Several nations indicate it isn’t good to give Ukraine immediate hope with any rash decision taken in the heat of battle. Calls for a fast-track move to grant membership clash with institutional and political objections and some common sense.
And to be admitted, potential newcomers would also need to absorb all EU regulations, from rule of law principles to trade and fertilizer standards—about 80,000 pages of rules. Over the past years, the EU has often pointed out that Ukraine’s anti-corruption measures still lacked teeth.
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