The European Commission has overcome its reluctance and brushed aside its concerns — even those that were justified — to open the door to EU membership for Ukraine. It is doing the only right thing in the current situation. It is acting politically, living up to its responsibility and no longer refusing to make its position clear. It is saying: We want Ukraine to be part of our community.
Thus, it is sending a clear signal to the Kremlin that it rejects the efforts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to deny Ukraine's right to exist as a state and to make the country part of his great fantasy empire. If the EU were not to open its doors to Ukraine, it would be a triumph for Putin, who would be able to say: Look, the European Union doesn't want you — that's why you belong to us!
In terms of geopolitics — particularly with regard to the future of the EU and of a world order that is at least partly rule-based — the European Commission did not have a choice. Let us hope that the grumblings of certain member states will not damage the image of unity. Austria and other countries still have some time ahead of next week's summit to review their priorities and put aside their fundamental misgivings about EU expansion. Fears regarding costs and other side effects must be shelved for the moment.
Support from EU
Ukrainians need all the assistance that they can get. This includes weapons, money, humanitarian aid and political support. An invitation to join the European Union is one of the most important signals Ukraine could receive. During the Maidan Uprising in the winter of 2013-14, demonstrators wrapped themselves in blue EU flags to protest the pro-Russia government of the time. For many of the people who have courageously stood up to Putin's campaign of destruction over nearly four months, the hope that Ukraine might one day be included as part of the European Union and the West, even if this could take some time, is a crucial source of motivation.
The positive signal from Brussels is also crucial for the survival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He has promised Ukrainians a great deal and asked them to endure a lot of blood and tears. In return, he has to deliver on the promise of a genuine prospect of a future. Anything else would be a political disaster.
The signals from the European Commission will have to be taken seriously within the EU itself. In international op-eds praising the decision in Brussels, there has been little mention of the necessary measures needed to reform the EU. Yet this is the crux of the matter — and the reform process seems to have been postponed indefinitely.
The EU's problems
As it is currently constituted, the EU is not in a position to integrate Ukraine. Many decisions are already blocked and, therefore, it is imperative that the tedious prerequisite that there be unanimity on individual issues at last be abolished. This is urgent. Just now, the adoption of an EU directive that would impose a minimum tax on multinational corporations was blocked. Once again, Hungary did the blocking.
Not only should Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an anti-democratic obstructionist and a friend of Putin's, finally be deprived of his voting rights and relegated to the reserve bench, but Polish leaders, too, should think hard about what they want their country to do. Do they want to blackmail the Council of the European Union? Or do they want to support Ukraine and advocate its eventual membership in the bloc?
It is time for one of the big EU players to take charge of the long-overdue reform process. But the German government is a failure in this regard, so it remains to be seen whether French President Emmanuel Macron can do it alone. If he is not crushed domestically, he could devote some of his energies in the coming years to reforming the European Union. After all, he knows better than anyone that the bloc cannot remain as it is if it wants to take Ukraine into its fold in just a few years.
This commentary was originally written in German.