EU is discussing plan for Ukraine’s partial membership in European Union, - Politico
The European Union is discussing an unprecedented plan to grant Ukraine partial membership in the bloc as early as next year.
This is reported in an article by Politico, as relayed by Censor.NET.
Details
Thus, the plan envisages that Ukraine could obtain EU membership "in advance," i.e., before it has implemented all the reforms necessary to obtain full membership privileges.
This idea is called "reverse enlargement." Thus, the country becomes a member of the EU at the beginning of the process, rather than at the end, when all the criteria for membership have been met.
EU officials say this idea is attractive because it will give Kyiv a break to complete reforms of its democratic institutions, judicial and political systems, while reducing the risk that Ukraine will lose hope of ever joining the bloc and turn away from the West due to delays in the process.
This involves the implementation of several steps.
The EU has already provided Ukraine with information on the work being done on three of the six negotiation clusters. At an informal meeting of ministers in Cyprus in March, the Ukrainian delegation plans to provide details on the other clusters so that work can begin on them as well.
However, according to Politico's sources, this approach will not mean any relaxation of reforms. Ukraine will be able to reap the real benefits of membership precisely because of the transformation that will take place.
A simplified form of EU membership will also be discussed.
The EU is considering the option of "reverse enlargement." A candidate country would first join the EU and then gradually acquire rights and obligations. Earlier, President Zelenskyy said that he did not support the idea of joining the EU with partial rights.
Despite support for this idea, it also has opponents. The EU believes that dividing member states into "two categories" is unfair. Germany is concerned about such an "advance" because it believes that member states will then be unable to meet all the necessary criteria, which will become a problem.
