Remember that, to be a member of the EU, the state must comply with the Copenhagen criteria.
It’s a long process, that can take years.
this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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And Ukraine clearly is not ready. They’re a weak democracy filled with corruption. The fact that they are in the middle of a war also doesn’t help.
The EU on the other hand still needs significant reform, when it comes to visibility to the general population, figuring out how to root out unanimity stuff on the EU commission, and figuring out what to do with idiots like orban. And making clear that EU law supersedes national law
I agree that things need to change in the EU. It’s completely unacceptable that a couple states that went wrong can blackmail the whole union. If necessary, the EU needs to be able to suspend membership in extreme cases. And be done with unanimous agreements, and change to a majority one. The current rules are too idealistic, and didn’t account for a state going awry.
Membership suspension should be a no go. But unanimity is indeed a problem with 27 states. There should be a way for a like 70% majority, so the black sheeps can't take the whole EU ostage.
The rules are not idealistic btw. It the most pragmatic rule of the EU: it is the only way for states to accept ruling from Europe. This way, there is nothing they must do that they haven't bargained before they accept.
This is why any politician saying the EU is forcing them to do something is a big lier. Nothing in the EU is done without the approbation of each single EU country leader or its representative.
What I mean with "idealistic" is that there are no safeguards to deal with these situations, and in my opinion, it's because in the past it was thought that once a state was inside the Union, there would be no need to become anti-union, or sabotage it's working (or there would be safeguards in place already). It's clear now that a member state can go awry, and become no compliant with the EU, ignoring EU institutions and principles. The EU needs safeguard measures for those cases.
A majority rule will never happen. If it does, the west European countries will be in charge of the EU, which defeats the whole purpose of, you know, a union.
There are many ways to reach a majority. You can have a weighted majority, and agree that you need 3/4 of the votes to reach an agreement. So, those countries with more people have more voting power than many small countries. There are formulas, if you look for them.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The announcement comes at a critical time for Ukraine as its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion stalled in recent weeks and $60 billion in aid from the U.S. is stuck in Congress.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who had vehemently opposed the opening of accession talks for Ukraine, criticized the agreement reached without him by European leaders.
Against all odds, we achieved a decision to open accession negotiations with #Ukraine and #Moldova,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo similarly said the decision was “historic” and “an important message of hope for these countries and their citizens.”
The much-awaited decision came surprisingly early, as Orbán had been threatening to use his veto to block the opening of accession talks in the days leading up to the summit.
Ukraine applied to join the EU in February 2022 — just days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country — and was granted candidate status in June.
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