Good morning,
As the EU keeps struggling to agree on extra military aid to Ukraine (with some diplomats arguing the so-called Kallas proposal should have been done differently), a political commitment to Kyiv’s EU membership aspirations has been put on the table by a small group of countries, ahead of today's EU summit.
Ministers from Nordic and Baltic states are calling to accelerate the accession negotiations, arguing that Ukraine could join the European Union by 2030.
The letter sent on Tuesday to the EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos and Polish minister Adam Szłapka (whose country heads the rotating EU Council presidency) stresses the importance of opening the fundamentals of membership negotiations (technically-known as cluster 1) as soon as possible. It also calls for opening all clusters by the end of 2025, and increasing support for Ukraine’s reforms.
“We are convinced that Ukraine’s accession to the EU is a crucial investment not only in Ukraine's but all of Europe's security — therefore, it is our shared interest to make this happen as soon as possible. The time has come for ambitious and effective decisions in this regard,” ministers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Sweden said.
In an exclusive interview with EUobserver, the EU envoy to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, recently told me that the 2030 target was not “unrealistic” — if reforms continue and a just peace is achieved. EU membership, she said, remains a key source of hope and motivation for the country, amid the war.
Meanwhile, Hungary is set to block the EU summit conclusions on Ukraine again, pushing leaders to adopt a separate text backed by 26 (as done two weeks ago during the special European Council) — this time around, calling on Russia “to show real political will to end the war”. This follows this week's direct Trump-Putin telephone call, where the Kremlin demanded an end to Western intelligence sharing and military aid to Kyiv.
– Elena Sánchez Nicolás, editor-in-chief
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