Ukraine has long been more than an EU candidate country. It is already a security, innovation, and resources partner of the European Union. If it joins the EU, it would likely become one of the Union’s five most populous Member States. For this and other reasons, the rule of law, internal market readiness, and the EU’s capacity to act are central prerequisites for viable accession. This is the tension at the heart of this new policy paper.
Under the title Political EU membership as a bridge out of the geostrategic grey zone, the paper focuses on how Berlin and Kyiv can make Ukraine’s EU accession a success. Its starting point is a central dilemma: geopolitically, everything points to binding Ukraine to the EU quickly and reliably. Institutionally and legally, however, this bond must not become a special deal that dilutes established accession requirements or creates conflicts within the Union.
The analysis appears at a time when Berlin, other Member States, Kyiv, and Brussels are intensively discussing new approaches to the enlargement process. It takes up the German impulse of ‘associated membership,’ but questions the term and assesses how such a format could become politically credible, legally sound, and persuasive to sceptical EU publics.
The paper therefore develops the format of ‘political membership’ as a binding preliminary stage to full membership. It forms part of a longer series of work through which the Bertelsmann Stiftung has examined relations between Ukraine, the EU, and Germany. What these studies have in common is the aim of developing policy recommendations on the basis of evidence-based research – thereby contributing to the debate on a realistic, fair, and strategically sound EU-Ukraine policy to the benefit of a strong Europe.
