European Council chief Charles Michel said the EU wants to discuss Ukraine’s recently submitted application for membership in the next few days. It could be the subject of a two-day informal EU summit starting Thursday in Versailles, France. Ultimately, it is the EU countries that decide whether to join the European Union, they have to be unanimous in favor.
The EU accession process is usually enormously complicated and lengthy. In principle, according to Article 49 of the EU Treaty, any European state can apply for admission, provided that it respects basic EU values such as democracy and the rule of law. In practice, however, EU law must first be transposed into national law. Strict requirements even apply to the start of accession negotiations. There are currently five candidates: Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Turkey. However, their accession negotiations have been going nowhere for more than 20 years.