Kicking this Hornets Nest: European leaders formally accept Ukraine as a candidate to join the EU

BRUSSELS — Leaders of the European Union on Thursday formally approved Ukraine’s candidate status to join the bloc — the first official step toward full membership.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, late Thursday confirmed that leaders had approved EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, calling it a “historic moment.”

“Today marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU,” he added via Twitter.

The move has reopened a tough and delicate debate within the EU over expansion, as Brussels has not welcomed any new countries since 2013, when Croatia joined.

That’s partly a result of the bloc’s difficult political and economic environment: the shocks of the global financial crisis of 2008, its own sovereign debt crisis in 2011, and then a refugee wave from the Syrian civil war during 2015. Those events bolstered support for populist parties across the region, leading many member states to prioritize domestic issues over expansion of EU membership.

But this has started to change, albeit slowly, following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. A recent survey by the European Parliament found that European support for EU membership is at a 15-year high.

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