Europe is changing the rules of enlargement because of the war in Ukraine

EU should change approach to enlargement due to war - Commissioner Kos

The current methodology of EU enlargement was created «for peacetime» and now requires radical revision. This was stated by the European Commissioner for Enlargement Martha Kos.

According to her, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has forced the EU to rethink your own priorities and returned enlargement policy to the centre of the European agenda.

Ukraine's contribution to the transformation of Europe

Kos emphasised that Ukraine has already made positive contribution to the development of Europe, In particular, through:

• rethinking the role security on the continent,
• intensification of discussions on future of the EU,
• topic return enlargement of the Union to strategic decisions.

She noted that Europeans may be, to some extent forget about the importance of security, but the war forced us to quickly return to this issue.

Ukraine's accession as a geopolitical necessity

The European Commissioner emphasised that Ukraine's membership in the EU should be considered not just as another expansion, and how geopolitical necessity for the stability of the whole of Europe.

This approach reflects a gradual change in thinking in Brussels - from a technical enlargement procedure to a strategic security solution.

Context.

After the outbreak of full-scale war, the European Union significantly accelerated political integration of Ukraine, by granting candidate status and opening the negotiation process.

The further transformation of enlargement policy could determine European security architecture for decades to come.