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On November 8, the European Commission issued a positive opinion on the start of formal negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova to the European Union. We have to wait until the heads of state and government of the 27 EU member states agree to these recommendations on December 14th and 15th. But it is a strong signal for Ukraine and Moldova. President Zelenskyy also welcomed this decision as a “historic step” by the Commission.
What are the conditions for joining the EU? “Firstly, we must be part of geographical Europe. For this reason, Morocco’s candidacy was rejected in 1987. And that is an argument that could be used against Turkey’s accession to the EU. Because the majority of Turkey is in Asia and a tiny part, Thrace is in Europe. An important part, because that’s where Istanbul is,” explains Delphine Papin from Le Monde. “Secondly, the candidate country must respect EU values such as the rule of law, democracy, human rights and equality between men and women.”
There are then three essential steps to go through: The state must submit a formal application to the Council of the EU, which brings the member states together. “Kosovo and Georgia, shaded blue on our map, have submitted their candidacy, but are stopped at this stage for the time being,” recalls Delphine Papin. “Because several EU member states (such as Germany) do not recognize the legitimacy of this state, Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. As for Georgia, it does not fully control its territory. Two parts have come under the control of pro-Russian separatists since the 2008 war. Ukraine and Moldova are also in the same configuration, with Crimea and eastern Ukraine under Russian control. For Moldova, the same problem applies with Transnistria, you know that this language of the territory is also held by “pro-Russians”.
In order to grant the candidate country this official status, the European Commission then checks whether it meets the EU’s political and economic criteria. The member states then vote, and this vote must be unanimous. Negotiations can then begin and accession must ultimately be approved by the EU Council and the EU Parliament.
Eight countries are now official candidates. We just talked about: Moldova and Ukraine and then there are the Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
As for Turkey, this country’s accession process is suspended due to the authoritarian tendencies of the Erdogan government and because the Turkish president is now looking towards Asia and Muslim countries.
How long does this process take? “It depends,” explains Delphine Papin. “For some states it is very long, for others it is very short! We presented it in a graph that shows, for each application, the length of time spent in each phase of membership…” Albania submitted its application in 2009, became an official candidate in 2014, but did not begin accession negotiations until 2022. That means thirteen years of waiting for his application to be considered.
Ukraine, for its part, submitted its candidacy five days after the start of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, and gained candidate status in June, barely four months later. The same applies to Moldova, which followed suit because it feared being Moscow’s next target. The accession negotiations for these two countries have not yet started but, as we have seen, the Commission has given a very positive opinion.