EU countries spoke out against fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession, Politico reports

As had been forecast, European Union countries have spoken out against Ukraine’s accelerated accession.

Politico reports this.

At a dinner in Brussels yesterday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, ambassadors said their countries do not support the idea of a simplified form of membership as early as 2027.

This resistance effectively blocks the application of the “membership first, integration later” model that the EU’s executive bodies had been promoting in hopes of bringing Ukraine into the Union by 2027, the outlet notes.

Several leading EU capitals had already agreed on a tough position regarding Ukraine’s accession ahead of the dinner, where von der Leyen’s chief of staff, Björn Seibert, presented the European Commission’s stance on the “reverse enlargement” mechanism.

“We want to anchor Ukraine in the EU, but we cannot break our procedures and abandon the merit-based system. The point is to find a realistic path forward—‘realistic’ here means one that takes into account the political concerns of national capitals,” one diplomat said.

As a reminder, the idea of fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession is being promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of a peace agreement.

At the same time, the European Union has not been able to name a timeline for Ukraine’s accession to the bloc.