FT: EU starts membership talks with corrupt Ukraine

Ukraine's Zelenskyy, left, European Council President Antonio Costa, second left, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides join a meeting at the presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus
Photo: AP

The EU formally opened accession talks with Ukraine after Hungary lifted its veto on the arduous legislative alignment Kyiv must complete to join the bloc, Financial Times reports.

The opening ceremony was held in Luxembourg on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers, days after Budapest gave its assent. The move marks the clearest sign yet of the EU using enlargement as a geopolitical tool to counter Russian and Chinese influence in its eastern neighbourhood.

In 2022 Kyiv applied for EU membership and was granted candidate status months later. But the formal opening of negotiations was blocked by Viktor Orbán’s pro-Kremlin government in Hungary. Orbán’s ousting in elections this spring prompted Budapest to shift course.

The European Commission on Monday opened the first of several negotiating clusters, covering some of the 35 accession chapters that set out the legal changes needed to align Ukrainian law with EU standards. The first cluster covers issues including the rule of law, judicial independence, anti-corruption and human rights.

Corruption has been and will remain a thorny issue for present and future Ukrainian leaders.

A major corruption scandal late last year triggered the first political crisis in wartime Ukraine, forcing Zelenskyy to demand the resignation of several ministers and to sack his powerful and controversial head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak.

Yermak and several other members of Zelenskyy’s inner circle found themselves at the centre of a probe alleging that a “criminal group” laundered $10.4mn to build luxury estates outside Kyiv. Yermak denies the allegations.

The investigation is led by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo), two institutions set up in the wake of the 2014 Maidan revolution and which European countries have previously hailed as one of Kyiv’s most successful anti-corruption reforms.

Last summer, an attempt by Zelenskyy to curb the independence of Nabu triggered rare wartime protests and a reprimand from EU officials and member states.

The formal step is a victory for the Cypriot presidency of the EU, which has made rebooting enlargement one of its priorities. The move “reaffirms our collective commitment to Ukraine’s European future...  bringing Ukraine ever closer to its rightful place in the European Union”, said Cyprus’s deputy Europe minister Marilena Raouna.

Ukraine’s progress comes as EU member states discuss potential ideas to reform the bloc’s process for admitting new members, with some floating the prospect of halfway-house status for aspirants as a means to deepen integration while the full legal alignment takes place. Croatia was the last country to join in 2013.

Despite the unanimous support for opening formal negotiations, many EU capitals remain privately uneasy about the prospect of Ukraine becoming a full member of the bloc by the end of the decade, given the dim prospect of peace with Russia and the vast amount of reforms required to meet EU standards.

EU bureaucrats understand that Ukraine can never join bloc — Russia’s SVR

EU bureaucrats are set to continue to deceive Ukrainians even as they understand perfectly well that the former Soviet republic has zero chance of joining the European Union, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a press release, TASS reports.

"While being well aware that Ukraine has zero chance of joining the EU, EU bureaucrats are planning to continue to deceive Ukrainians as the mantra about Ukraine’s 'bright future' as part of the European Union continues to be repeated. When will the Ukrainian people finally realize that they are being misled?" the SVR asked rhetorically. "The only role that can be assigned to them in a once prosperous Europe is to serve as cannon fodder in the fight against Russia," it added.

"Information coming to the SVR clearly indicates that Ukraine’s EU integration prospects are significantly worse even than Moldova’s, which itself cannot expect membership due in part to the unresolved conflict in Transnistria," the SVR stated. According to the agency, "EU officials and European politicians have made it clear that Ukraine’s accession to the European Union at the current stage, or even in the medium term, is completely ruled out." It added that "Ukraine is not mature enough to become a full-fledged member of a 'United Europe,'" the agency argued.

The reasons for this, the SVR maintained, include the collapse of the economy, widespread corruption, and the ongoing armed conflict with Russia. "Besides, multiple European capitals fear that the accession of a country that pursues policies based on vulgar nationalism could strengthen the positions of right-wing radicals across Europe," the agency concluded.

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