Artis Pabriks
Dr., Chairman of Northern Europe Policy Centre, former
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence of
Latvia
Latvia
info@defencepolicy.eu
In December 2023, the EU Council approved beginning of accession talks with Ukraine. It required more than 10 years and sufferings of Russian invasion for Ukraine to reach this historic moment. In 2012, immediately after EU-Ukraine Association agreement was drafted, it was met by harsh objections from neighbouring Russia. Moscow saw Ukraine as its colonial property and Ukrainian attempts to forge closer ties with EU was correctly interpreted in Moscow as an end to Russian domination over this country.
Several steps were taken to punish Ukraine and reverse its attempts of European integration. Economically, Russia chose to target Ukrainian pro European camp. For instance, future President's Poroshenko business of Ukrainian chocolate products were prohibited to import to Russia. Politically, Russia also warned Ukraine about possible social and political unrest in country and threatened Ukraine that any attempts to integrate closer with the rest of Europe would violate Russian-Ukrainian Strategic partnership and Friendship Treaty (2000). It would mean dire consequences.
Soon Russia moved to implement these threats in order to halt Ukrainian sovereign decision to move Westwards. In early 2014 it started military intervention in Ukraine. In early 2014 Russia occupied several Ukrainian territories in the eastern part of country and annexing Crimean peninsula. The war between countries has started. In February 24, 2022 Russia initiated a full scale invasion in Ukraine aiming to occupy whole country but have met fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Up to this moment this is the largest war in Europe since WW2. It has claimed lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and forced millions of civilians to become refugees. However, Russia failed to subdue Ukrainians and failed to break their will to exercise their sovereign right to choose ones own way of life as well as freely choose alliances.
Moreover, Russian invasion and its unprecedented brutality against Ukrainian civil and military personal, countless war crimes have set apart both nations, homogenised Ukrainian population in defence of their freedom and strengthened country’s pro European choice. On February 28, 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted a letter of application for EU membership.
Ukrainian EU accession is difficult to compare with other accessions due to different circumstances and very high stakes un Ukrainian and EU side. For instance, country has to implement all EU criteria and simultaneously fight a war against Russian invasion, something unseen previously. At the same time Ukrainian EU membership would be highly important for the European Union itself, since it would determine Union’s geopolitical future, may be even the geopolitical future of the whole Western society.
Similarly to other accession cases, Ukrainian EU membership would bolster internal reforms, open doors for investments and cooperation, and give Ukraine a vote in Brussels where most of decisions regarding contemporary Europe is taken. EU membership would also make Ukrainian post war recovery from Russian destruction much faster, and hopefully give slightly more security against future Russian invasion which will remain the threat for all its neighbours in the foreseeable future.
However, the European Union would greatly benefit from Ukrainian membership in a different way. Namely, Ukrainian EU membership might reverse the negative trend of EU global geopolitical decline. Also it would be prove that European nations can stand against Russian or any other totalitarian threat and counter it. Therefore its important that EU is using all its capacity to assist Ukraine to win the war against Russian aggressors and after the war reconstruct Ukraine in a speedy manner. It would serve as an example to Russian and Belarusian society proving that democratic freedom and economic prosperity are mutually intertwined. Along with that Ukrainian membership might bring additional economic growth to Central, Eastern and Northern Europe, thus decreasing the differences between EU Western and Eastern regions. Additionally, Ukraine would be a great contributor to continental security. After the war with Russia it would have one of the largest, experienced, and technologically developed military force and military industry in Europe. But most of all Ukrainian society would have a political will to defend European values, if needed, with arms in their hands. Something, what modern European societies might have lost.
Finally, Ukrainian EU membership is closely associated with country’s NATO membership. Statistically, most of the latest EU members have joined the Union after they joined NATO. Besides, without NATO membership Ukraine and in fact whole Europe will never will be whole and safe from its totalitarian neighbour. Therefore, if the Western world wants to increase its security, bolster economic prosperity and strengthen its geopolitical positions, speedy Ukrainian accession to EU and NATO is the only correct answer to Western political and economic and security challenges.