POLICY PAPER | Demand the impossible: How Ukraine became a candidate for EU membership

Tomasz Żornaczuk writes that Russia's aggression in Ukraine has led to major changes in EU enlargement in 2022. The most significant of these was the change in the Union's geographical position after Ukraine and Moldova were granted EU candidate status and Georgia was granted the prospect of accession. The move seemed almost impossible a few weeks before it became the new political reality in June 2022.

"Candidate status itself is only the initial stage of EU integration. The next step - the opening of accession negotiations - requires the fulfulment of conditions and the unanimous consent of all current member states. The next steps are to open several reform clusters (currently comprising a total of 35 chapters) and then to complete the reform requirements and close them. The move seemed almost impossible a few weeks before it became the new political reality in June 2022."

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This policy paper was prepared as part of the Think Visegrad fellowship programme in Brussels.