The recent emergency support package for Ukraine from the European Union, as part of its global response to the coronavirus outbreak, was certainly welcome news. The COVID-19 pandemic will jolt the EU into a new reality filled with numerous new challenges and unforeseen opportunities. To successfully face this new reality, the EU leadership will require a clear vision, as well as the courage to act boldly and in a timely manner.
Ukraine’s full membership in the EU is part of the new reality that will improve the EU’s future in the best interests of all its member states.
It is noteworthy that the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, recently stated that: “We are not going to Europe, but returning to the European community of peoples.”
The Global focus on Brexit has clouded the fact that many more European nations wish to join the EU than to leave it, and that the EU and its ideals continue to matter to a great many people.
The Euromaidan Revolution that ended Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency in 2014, triggering Russia’s war against Ukraine, demonstrated that joining the EU was, and still is, worth dying for.
Why did hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens occupy the streets of Kyiv in the face of frightening odds during the Euromaidan winter of 2013-2014? It was to protest the decision of Ukraine’s then-president to suspend the process of Ukraine’s integration into the EU.
After Yanukovych shamefully fled the country and Ukraine’s European aspirations were put back on track, the Russian Federation responded by attacking and illegally occupying Crimea and a portion of eastern Ukraine.
At a time when Brexit led some to doubt the importance of the EU, Ukraine had already lost over 13,000 individuals, seen over 30,000 suffer various types of injuries and coped with over 1.5 million internally displaced persons, not to mention the incalculable negative impact on its economy as a result of defending its right to choose to sever ties with the Soviet past and to strive for Euro‑integration and membership in the EU.
Rather than buckling under this pressure, on Feb. 7, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, voted to amend the Constitution to consolidate in the highest law of the country Ukraine’s choice – the European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of the strategic course of the state towards Ukraine’s full membership in the EU and NATO.
Other than the COVID-19 pandemic, the most impactful events of the 21st century have arguably been related to Ukraine’s civilizational choice of Europe and the EU, and the RF’s desperate attempts to block it. This cannot come as a surprise, for Ukraine’s European past and future are a complete dichotomy to Russia’s false historical narrative that brazenly attempts to propagate the myth that Ukraine and Eastern Europe belong in the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.
Ukrainians have already made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their European dreams, principles, and aspirations.
Moreover, despite the blatant and persistent Russian aggression against Ukraine for over six years now, amazingly, Ukraine continues to reform in a tangible manner and remains on course in its Euro-integration process. This was recognized in a joint press statement following the 6th Association Council meeting between the EU and Ukraine on Jan. 28, 2020, in Brussels: The council welcomed the concrete results that the implementation of the Association Agreement continues to deliver for the benefit of the citizens of the EU and Ukraine. This is demonstrated, inter alia, by increasing bilateral trade, which grew by 13% the first nine months of 2019 compared to 2018.
Today, it is no longer a question of “if” Ukraine will join the EU, but a question of “when.”
The record-low oil prices, as well as the overall global macroeconomic conditions, present the EU with a truly incredible opportunity to change forever the course of history and significantly bolster European security, stability and prosperity by taking the next logical step and securing the full integration of Ukraine into the EU.
It is the perfect time for the EU and Ukraine to outline concrete steps and a timeline for Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU.
This will obviously be a challenging process as the RF is working diligently to influence elections, hearts, minds, and pocketbooks throughout the world in order to make sure that Ukraine’s accession to the EU does not come about. Tactics similar to those used by the RF to attempt to block the EU’s ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement should be expected.
So why should the EU adopt this bold course? For the same reason that the EU has invested so much into Ukraine’s economy, society, governance, as well as Ukraine’s environment and connectivity – the EU’s own immediate and future self-interest – of course!
To begin with, the EU stands to gain a young, vibrant, educated, and ambitious population of 43 million, supported by a worldwide diaspora of over 20 million, which is willing to face and overcome the greatest of challenges in order to guarantee its European future.
Ukraine is also a land with tremendous natural and technological resources that would considerably strengthen and enrich the EU, particularly after the negative impact of Brexit.
In fact, if Brexit was arguably the EU’s greatest failure, then Ukraine’s full membership in the EU will become the EU’s greatest success story.
Indeed, Ukraine’s membership in the EU will vividly change the entire playing field in Europe in the best interests of all EU member states.
The EU presidents must seize this unique opportunity for the significant betterment of the EU, and demonstrate both courageous and inspired leadership by promoting Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU.
Eugene Czolij is president of the Ukraine-2050 nongovernmental organization and served as president of the Ukrainian World Congress from 2008-2018. Ukraine-2050 was established to help implement within one generation – by 2050 – strategies for the sustainable development of Ukraine as a fully independent, territorially integral, democratic, reformed and economically competitive European state.
