reports<\/a>.<\/p>\nHowever, behind closed doors, EU leaders are expected to debate the next steps amid growing diplomatic disagreement over the pace and scope of expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpect plenty of smiles, bonhomie, and backslapping in front of the cameras when Europe\u2019s leaders greet Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Thursday’s summit in Brussels,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n
After Zelenskyy leaves the room, \u201cthe tone will change\u201d as the EU\u2019s 27 leaders consider how to manage a widening queue of candidate countries and a stalled enlargement process that has not seen new members since Croatia joined in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlbania has already taken 11 years, why should we do Ukraine in three weeks?\u201d said one EU diplomat, highlighting concerns about accelerating the accession process. France and the Netherlands are considered among the main countries cautious about speeding up Ukraine\u2019s membership path.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy has called for Ukraine to join the EU by 2028 and is seeking to embed that timeline into a future peace settlement with Russia. However, officials across European capitals consider such a timeframe unrealistic and politically unfeasible.<\/p>\n
German officials have promoted an alternative proposal described as the \u201conly game in town,\u201d advanced by Friedrich Merz, which would offer Ukraine \u201cassociate membership\u201d \u2014 a limited status without voting rights until full accession at a later stage. Zelenskyy has rejected the idea.<\/p>\n
EU accession requires candidates to progress through six negotiating \u201cclusters,\u201d beginning with rule of law, democratic institutions, and reforms. Ukraine\u2019s next objective is to open the remaining five clusters.<\/p>\n
However, draft summit conclusions were reportedly revised, softening earlier language that referred to opening \u201call other clusters\u201d to a more cautious formulation of \u201cother clusters,\u201d reflecting ongoing hesitation among member states.<\/p>\n
Several EU countries continue to raise objections. Bulgaria insists on safeguarding the rights of the Bulgarian minority in Ukraine and has previously used similar concerns to block North Macedonia\u2019s accession process. Hungary\u2019s P\u00e9ter Magyar has advocated a timeline exceeding a decade and suggested a binding referendum on membership.<\/p>\n
France is expected to face domestic political considerations ahead of its April 2027 presidential election, while Poland has expressed concerns over the potential impact on its agricultural sector.<\/p>\n
With a growing list of candidates \u2014 including Albania, which has been waiting since 2014, and Montenegro since 2010 \u2014 EU officials are also exploring alternative integration models that would avoid formal treaty changes.<\/p>\n
These proposals would move away from full enlargement toward gradual integration into selected parts of the EU single market, offering a more limited form of membership.<\/p>\n
Gerald Knaus, chair of the European Stability Initiative, described such an approach as the most \u201crealistic utopia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it is pretty clear that in the next few years, perhaps Montenegro will join, I\u2019m not sure, but no other countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Marta Kos, the EU\u2019s enlargement commissioner, has also suggested withholding full voting rights from new members for up to 15 years, particularly in cases where governments are accused of democratic backsliding after accession.<\/p>\n
Under such a model, even Croatia \u2014 which joined the EU in 2013 \u2014 would not have enjoyed full voting rights today. However, the idea has faced resistance, including from Montenegro, which argues that smaller countries should not be treated as unequal within EU decision-making structures.<\/p>\n
By Vafa Guliyeva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European leaders are set to reaffirm support for Ukraine\u2019s EU aspirations at a summit in Brussels, with formal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4388,4129,4393,4389,4392,4387,4391,6,4390,4386],"class_list":["post-23615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-analysis-of-azerbaijan","tag-azerbaijan","tag-baku","tag-important-news-of-azerbaijan","tag-international-experts","tag-interviews","tag-interviews-with-azerbaijani-analysts","tag-netherlands","tag-news-from-baku","tag-news-of-azerbaijan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}