Russia-attacked Ukraine desperately wants the prospect of EU membership. The EU Commission led by President von der Leyen gives the green light. An overview of the developments.
One day after the trip to Kyiv by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his colleagues from Italy, France and Romania, Ukraine can hope for further support for its ambitions to join the EU.
The EU Commission is in favor of officially nominating Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for accession to the European Union. The German press agency learned this from commission circles.
The authority is thus laying the basis for a possible decision by the EU member states. The heads of state and government already want to discuss the issue at a summit meeting at the end of next week.
According to the EU Commission’s recommendation, Georgia, which is also aiming to join the EU, should only be granted candidate status after certain conditions have been met. Like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, the country would initially only be a potential candidate for accession.
Based on the recommendation of the EU Commission, the EU states must decide how to proceed. The views of the governments on the subject have so far diverged widely. According to diplomats, countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands consider the granting of candidate status to the three states in Eastern Europe to be premature and purely symbolic.
Germany wants Ukraine as an EU candidate
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and French President Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, spoke in Kyiv on Thursday in favor of Ukraine becoming a candidate for accession. Germany and France argue that the candidate status does not anticipate the admission decision, nor is it associated with a time frame. For example, Turkey has been a candidate for accession since 1999.
Scholz said the previous evening on ZDF’s “heute journal” that Ukraine’s path to the EU was “a very demanding one” that could also take “a very long time”. However, the status as a candidate for accession means that hope on the way to Europe becomes concrete for the people of Ukraine. Regarding the time horizon, the SPD politician said that no one could seriously answer that. “But it’s worth it, that’s the message.”
On ZDF and ARD, the chancellor named progress in the rule of law and the fight against corruption as prerequisites for EU accession. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has ended his stay in Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia. The SPD politician arrived on Friday morning by train in Przemysl, Poland.
According to a new survey, more than half of the German citizens who are eligible to vote are in favor of Ukraine joining the EU within the next few years. In the ZDF “Politbarometer” 60 percent of those questioned spoke out in favor of it. Almost a third (31 percent) refused to bring the country attacked by Russia into the EU in the next few years.
London: Moscow wants to encircle Sievjerodonetsk
According to British intelligence experts, Russian troops in Ukraine have continued their efforts to close the ring around the city of Sieverodonetsk from the south. “In the past 24 hours, Russian forces have probably continued to try to gain the upper hand on the Popasna axis, from which they want to encircle the Sievarodonetsk pocket from the south,” the website said in the daily update on the Ukraine war by the British Ministry of Defense on Friday morning.
Zelenskyj sees “historic day” for Ukraine
After the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke in his evening video address of a “historic day” for his country. Never since its independence has Ukraine come so close to the European Union. Thanks to the courage of Ukrainian men and women, Europe can write a new history of freedom “and finally eliminate the gray area between the EU and Russia in Eastern Europe”.
Shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, Ukraine submitted an application for acceptance into the EU. The EU states then instructed the EU Commission to deal with it and make a recommendation. A decision by the EU heads of state and government on Ukraine’s application for membership could already come at the next summit, which begins next Thursday in Brussels.
What about other candidate countries?
Linked to the question of Ukraine’s candidate status is dealing with other states hoping for concrete prospects of joining the EU. Austria’s Chancellor Nehammer, for example, declared immediately before the EU Commission’s recommendation that his country would only agree to the candidate status for Ukraine if the same procedure was followed with Bosnia-Herzegovina. “We need to ensure that the same standards are applied as for other Western Balkans applicant countries. Against this background, it would be inconceivable for me to grant Ukraine candidate status and at the same time keep countries like Bosnia-Herzegovina on the sidelines,” Nehammer told Welt.
It must be ensured that the EU applies “the same standards” to Ukraine as it does to other applicant countries from the Western Balkans. “There must be no double standards or even first and second class applicants,” he said.
The Western Balkan state of Bosnia-Herzegovina had already submitted an application for membership at the beginning of 2016 and has only been considered a “potential candidate for membership” for years. Nehammer emphasized that it was undisputed that Ukraine was “part of the European family”.
Romania’s head of state Iohannis also wants Moldova and Georgia to have candidate status. “Guaranteing EU candidate status for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia at the European Council next week is essential to building a strong and enduring shield around our values,” he said in Kyiv.
Heavy Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine
According to their leadership, the Ukrainian troops in the east of the country are still under heavy Russian fire with artillery and multiple rocket launchers. On Thursday evening, the general staff primarily named the cities of Sievjerodonetsk and Lyssychansk and their surroundings, which have been fought over for days. At two other points on the front, on the other hand, it was possible to ward off enemy advances.
The information was initially not verifiable. In the Kharkiv region, Russian troops used artillery fire to prevent Ukrainians from advancing closer to the border between the two countries, sources said. Russian relief attacks are being carried out on sections of the front near the city of Donetsk and near Zaporizhia in order to tie down Ukrainian troops.
Moscow: Nearly 2,000 foreign fighters killed
According to Russian sources, nearly 2,000 foreign fighters have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in February. “Overall, our lists (…) include mercenaries and weapons specialists from 64 countries,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov in Moscow on Friday. Most of the fighters killed came from Poland, the USA, Canada and Great Britain. This information could not be independently verified.
A few days ago, Ukraine announced that volunteers from around 55 countries – including Germany – were fighting alongside them against Russian troops. At the beginning of June, the Legion, which was set up as a state agency, also confirmed the death of a German for the first time, who had died in the fighting during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The case of two Britons and a Moroccan who were sentenced to death by pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region as mercenaries has recently attracted particular attention. Great Britain, Ukraine and the United Nations sharply criticized the decision and spoke of prisoners of war who were entitled to protection.
More than 5.7 million Ukrainians have fled to the EU
According to the EU border protection agency Frontex, more than 5.7 million people from Ukraine have sought safety in the EU since the start of the Russian war of aggression. In the meantime, however, more than 2.8 million have traveled back to their homeland, the authority said on Friday. In the week from June 8th to 14th, the number of people leaving and returning was about the same at 237,000.
“The borders of Poland and Romania are still under the greatest pressure,” the statement said. Both EU member states also played the crucial role in overland transportation of Ukrainian grain. This led to truck traffic jams of up to 20 kilometers at border crossings.
Russia: Economic outlook slightly better
The International Economic Forum is being held in St. Petersburg, to which far fewer foreign guests have come this year because of the war. Despite the extensive sanctions imposed by the West, representatives of the Russian leadership are no longer so gloomy about the development of the economy and inflation in their own country. There is reason for a “certain optimism,” said Economics Minister Maxim Reschetnikov in St. Petersburg. “The results of the first quarter and the preliminary estimates for April and May show that things are getting better” than previously expected in the forecasts.
Inflation will be “significantly” lower than the last forecast of 17.5 percent by the end of the year, said Reshetnikov. He also called limiting the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) to five to six percent “absolutely achievable”. In May, the ministry had put the expected GDP slump at 7.8 percent.
The head of the state-owned Sberbank, German Gref, meanwhile forecast GDP to fall to 7 percent and inflation to 15 percent. At the same time, Gref warned that the banking sector is likely to end the year with a loss.
Source: Stern
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