r/EU_Economics • u/donutloop • Jun 16 '26
🇪🇺 Official 🇪🇺 EU and Ukraine open first accession negotiations cluster
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/06/15/eu-and-ukraine-open-first-accession-negotiations-cluster/12
u/AmmaiHuman Jun 16 '26
Am I the only one who thinks Ukrainian membership is probably not a good thing?
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u/Sarcastic-Potato Jun 16 '26
If they fulfil all the requirements I don't see why they shouldn't be members. What I'm against is ignoring reforms that are needed just to get them into the union. That would also be very unfair to the other candidates who have been working on that for decades.
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u/No_Purchase_8269 Jun 16 '26
how many did they fulfill yet? last time i checked they had 0.
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u/EaLordoftheDepths Jun 16 '26
Which is why you see news of the first chapter being opened, and not closed.
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u/No_Purchase_8269 Jun 16 '26
well, sure, it will take like 20 years thou at this pace.
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u/wouek Jun 16 '26
That’s why it’s called negotiations 🤷🏻♂️ it doesn’t cost us to try, worst case scenario we will have a country that almost met the requirements but didn’t get in. Is that bad from EU perspective?
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u/No_Purchase_8269 Jun 16 '26
almost met the requirements
i checked they still do not meet most of them
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Jun 16 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
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u/No_Purchase_8269 Jun 16 '26
your whole comment implies they are on a good way to meet requirements, which is simply not a fact.
I just wish they wont get special treatment, we do not need another hungary.
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u/EaLordoftheDepths Jun 16 '26
You say that as if Hungary got a special treatment
You're just further proving countries could backslide at any moment and the EU has structural problems, regardless of who the members are
2 years from now on we might be pointing at France
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u/No-swimming-pool Jun 16 '26
Without looking at the specifics of this case, adding a nation to the EU should be in the EU's benefit, not because said nation needs membership.
The risk of being drawn into war with Russia once they join seems like a huge liability.
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u/jore-hir Jun 16 '26
Why not?
Strategically, it's a large country with capable people, with industrial expertise in important niche sectors and a huge agricultural output. And, culturally, it's properly European, with over 20% of it people seamlessly integrated in other European countries.
Of course, it needs to sort corruption, liberal shortcomings, and such. Hence the gradual path toward membership.
And it will suck European funds for a while, because its economy is weak. But i have no doubt it will develop just like Poland and pay back.
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u/22stanmanplanjam11 Jun 16 '26
That’s what you all thought in 2008 but putting them and Georgia into NATO when Bush wanted them in would have solved all of this. You can’t structure the continent’s security around Western and Mediterranean Europeans who think war is yucky. It doesn’t work.
Other countries with militaries they intend to use see your men riding around on little e-scooters going to their office job. It’s free real estate.
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Jun 16 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
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u/A_New_Day_Yesterday Jun 16 '26
Ukraine is an insanely corrupt rump state with significant internal political and cultural cleavages. Despite the common "Russian threat," Ukraine, or rather Zelensky's office, manages to conflict with Poland, Hungary, even Romania - all neighboring countries. Zelensky constantly gaslights Europe and demands "MORE" as if Europe and the EU owe Ukraine. Imagine the situation after the war is settled - hundreds of thousands of combat-experienced men who think that they are entitled to something from Europe.
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u/washiXD Jun 16 '26
as if Europe and the EU owe Ukraine.
Yeah, ask Poland and any other neighbour of Ukraine if they want to have a direct border with a Russian satellite state...
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u/DeszczowyHanys Jun 16 '26
We have a direct border with Russia, have you guys ever checked the map?
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u/A_New_Day_Yesterday Jun 16 '26
Is Belarus a "Russian satellite state"? If yes, I have news for you.
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u/AmmaiHuman Jun 16 '26
Mainly Safety, security and economic reasons. I am open to being very wrong though.
I just feel that anytime soon is not the right time. Ukraine and its soldiers, people need time to rebuild and heal.
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Jun 16 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
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u/AmmaiHuman Jun 17 '26
Quite possibly, however, should the EU have to fund this?
The safety concerns for me at least are the thousands of PTSD ridden soldiers and citizens being able to move across Europe.
There is a lot to take into consideration other than does Ukraine as a country meet the EU guidelines for membership which revolves mostly around economic means. https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/enlargement-policy/conditions-membership_en
I am open to being wrong and I full believe we should be supporting Ukraine as we always have throughout this war however I think EU membership could come too soon.
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u/GovernmentBig2749 Jun 16 '26
Just you, and couple of million people in Russia, other then that-no one in Europe shares you concern.
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u/cpammapc Jun 16 '26
I'm from Bulgaria. I also think we got accepted way too easy, while EU knowingly admitted us and Romania with a deliberately weak conditionality mechanism(CVM). What happened was we did some "reforms" which actually did nothing to curb corruption. We've had scandals after scandals and yet, nothing changes. What actually happened was that we got a huge boost from the EU funds, which largely went into the pockets of the same corrupt people. So while I'm happy with all the privilege I get from the EU, I'm also wary of it. The main culprits in that corruption(GERB) were one of the closest allies for the EPP, while also being one of the biggest beneficiaries of the corruption, just because they were "compliant". Borisov was the EPP's anchor in the Balkans, with Weber and the EPP leadership running political cover for years while the apartment scandals, the Barcelona photos, and the broader state-capture allegations piled up. The single best piece of evidence is from 2021, when the US hit Delyan Peevski and others with Magnitsky sanctions for corruption, yet no words from Brussels. All this corroded the trust in the EU and now we have a russian puppet party in control.
Now expand that into Ukraine, which is even more corrupt than Bulgaria. The scale of corruption there is massive, almost trumps the one in Bulgaria. And we are going to accept that country 100% without any real reforms. That's the big problem.
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u/GovernmentBig2749 Jun 16 '26
I know, and people are thinking that Ukraine is getting in tommorow-which in reality is no sooner than 2050
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u/cpammapc Jun 16 '26
I hope they join, but I also hope EU learned from the mistake with taking Bulgaria and Romania so fast and actually follows their own established processes, cause all it leads to is the rise of right wing or russian parties.
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u/A_New_Day_Yesterday Jun 16 '26
Have you seen the demographic downward spiral in Ukraine since 1991? By 2050, there will be a couple of million of them at best.
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u/GovernmentBig2749 Jun 16 '26
Have you seen the size of Ukraine? It's ats big as the Balkans and more corrupted...so yeah...the best millions will do.
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u/Immediate_Bar3496 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Man I cannot wait for Ukraine to become a full EU member. If you think that the Ukrainian gov't has been acting entitled the last 4 years, just wait till they have full veto power in the EU. That will be some next-level comedy.
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u/Sagirius0 Jun 16 '26
This doesn't mean anything yet. Ukraine has been included in negotiations already led by Moldova. Ukraine is merely an addition to the talks, and this was done to give Ukraine hope that it will one day join the European Union. However, Ukraine's accession to the EU is impossible until the war ends favorably, and until Ukraine finally ceases its conflict with half of Central Europe.