It’s more than just an intentionsang Asfalto back in 1983 in a song that would become an anthem of Spanish rock. 43 years later the song ‘resonates’ in Brussels, where the EU has already made it clear that Ukraine’s future accession is beginning to be just that, “more than an intention”.
Already, the EU meets from this Thursday in Cyprus for an informal Council with several issues on the table. Among them, as always for years, Ukraine. And with Volodimir Zelensky among those present.
Before him and with him, the President of the European Council has made a statement that will sound like hit on all kyiv stations. “It is the time to look forward and prepare the next step (with Ukraine). He next step is to open the first cluster —negotiation block—; We completed the first two steps and we will comply with the next step.”
Let no one speed up. Although “most of the preparatory work has already been done”, as Ursula von der Leyen remarked, the times of bureaucracy are eternal and those of the Brussels bureaucracy, even longer. Ukraine’s path to EU membership is still long. But the discourse has begun to change as perhaps it had not done since the beginning of the Russian invasion, which .
Without media in front, in the form of a statement, community leaders have put in black and white how “the presidents praised the important progress that Ukraine has made on its path to accession to the EU (and) asked that negotiation chapters are opened without delay“.
Until now, The veto of Orbán’s Hungary made Ukraine’s ‘European’ future an impossiblebut his defeat against the opponent Peter Magyar It has been celebrated in a good part of the European apparatus (and even more so in the Ukrainian one). Without it, Brussels has given its approval to the unlocking of a European loan of 90 billion euros for kyivas well as the adoption of the twentieth package of sanctions against Russia.
“A great day” and what remains
Volodymyr Zelenski ha vivido es palabras on sitein the first hours of a Council that will address more issues after its passage. The Ukrainian president did not want to expand too much on what he calls “a great day” for the “strong and fundamental” decision to unblock the European loan to kyiv and with an eye on the “exciting” horizon of rapprochement with the EU.
The calendar, however, is so future-oriented that no one offers deadlines. The high representative, Kaja Kallas, made it clear upon her arrival in Cyprus that Ukraine is “clearly on the path to membership” and confirmed that the leaders would address at this summit “how to really accelerate” the process, “given that we now have new circumstances.” “Maybe we can advance on issues that were red lines or have been blocked before. Let’s see if we can move forward with it,” he concluded.
His countryman, the current Prime Minister of Estonia, Kristen Michal, has been even clearer in asking to “maintain the momentum” of the . “In my opinion, the future of Ukraine is absolutely in Europe. The sooner we start, the sooner we will get there,” said Michal, happy because The EU is no longer a “hostage” to Orbán.
