With the continuation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the arms assistance and political solidarity of the United States and the West to Ukraine have become more and more frequent, and the economic and financial sanctions against Russia have been launched. Especially on Sunday, European Commission President von der Leyen said that "Ukraine is welcome to join us" and "Ukraine is one of us". In this context, the Ukrainian government believes that its opportunity to fully turn to the West may have arrived, and President Zelenskiy immediately submitted an application to join the European Union, and called on the EU to start a "fast track" to allow Ukraine to join as soon as possible. Eight EU member states in Eastern Europe, including Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, also responded immediately, asking the EU to approve Ukraine's accession application as soon as possible. For a time, Ukraine's long-cherished wish to join the European Union seemed to be within reach.
Is this really the case? The reaction from the EU hierarchy is well worth playing. According to The Singaporean media outlet Lianhe Zaobao, Who spoke to Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, "wanting to join the EU is a long process that requires many factors to consider, and this process usually lasts many years". European Commission President von Deryn, who has previously publicly stated that he "welcomes Ukraine to join the European Union", has quickly adjusted his attitude, and her spokesman, Eric Mamey, said that the "we" in von Delain's speech "welcome Ukraine to us" refers to the whole of Europe, not to the EU alone. He also said that joining the EU requires procedures and that "compliance with the procedures for joining the EU is a major priority". The German foreign minister also stepped forward to welcome Ukraine's accession to the European Union, but the procedure "cannot be completed in a short period of time.". All in all, although many Eastern European countries strongly support Ukraine's accession to the Eu, senior EU officials and Germany, as the "leading boss", are extremely indifferent to this.
The EU's reasons for resisting Ukraine's "entry in the line of fire" are very simple, and the immediate reason is naturally the fear of getting involved in the war with Russia. Although the EU is not a military alliance, the EU's military obligations to member states are obviously heavier than those of non-member states, and the EU will be in a dilemma over whether to intervene in the Russo-Ukrainian war: if it intervenes, it is very likely to trigger a major war throughout Europe or even a third world war; if it does not intervene, the authority of the EU will inevitably be severely frustrated. Therefore, it is the most efficient and safest way to keep Ukraine out of the country under the pretext of "procedure" or the like. In particular, it takes months or even years for the vast majority of countries to submit their accession applications to formally approve their accession, so it is natural and blameless that Ukraine's application to join the European Union will be reviewed for several years.
Of course, there is a deeper reason why Germany and the EU reject Ukraine's accession, and that is the distribution of interests within the EU. In order to ensure that the economic development within the EU is relatively balanced, and in order to make up for the excessive labor absorption from the less developed countries in Eastern Europe, the EU stipulates that economically developed member states should subsidize huge amounts of money for economically backward member states every year. At that time, Western European countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom had to transfer hundreds of billions of euros to Eastern European countries every year, which brought them a considerable economic burden. One of the big reasons for Brexit is that it does not want to continue to subsidize the finances of Eastern European countries. Nowadays, there are many right-wing political forces in Germany and France who believe that economic subsidies to Eastern European countries have seriously harmed the interests of their own people, and demand that relevant expenditures be reduced or even directly dissolved. Today, Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with a per capita GDP of only about $3,700, similar to that of Vietnam, while the EU's per capita GDP reached $34,000 over the same period. The gap between Ukraine's economy and the EU is so exaggerated that if it joins the EU, it will inevitably cause a heavier economic burden on economically developed countries such as Germany and France. In particular, at present, the war between Russia and Ukraine has burned through almost all major cities in Ukraine, and no matter how the war ends, Ukraine's national economy will be in a mess, then the economic burden caused by Ukraine to Germany and France will be more exaggerated, so senior officials in Germany and the European Union are very cautious about Ukraine's accession.
All in all, at present, the West hopes that Ukraine will play a role of a "bloodletting tank" and constantly deplete Russia's military and economic strength, so it hopes that the Russo-Ukrainian war can be long-term and protracted, so that Ukraine will become a quagmire for the Russian army. This, of course, could greatly deplete Russia's national strength, but the Ukrainian people would have to pay a terrible price. As for helping Ukraine rebuild its country and revitalize its economy, there is a lack of interest in the EUROPEAN Union and the Entire Western Bloc. As for the eight Eastern European countries that actively call on the EU to accept Ukraine as soon as possible, they basically have historical disputes with Russia, and they are all eu-subsidized countries rather than subsidized countries, and their calls are only anti-Russian, and they are not good for Ukraine itself.