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Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/eudebates Europe’s leaders and top officials are descending on Kyiv with pledges of fresh support as Russia continues its relentless air attacks against Ukraine.

Newly appointed French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said on Saturday in Kyiv that Ukraine will remain “France’s priority” despite “the multiplying crises” during his first foreign trip after his appointment last week. Séjourné hailed a “new phase” in joint weapons production with Ukraine during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

Séjourné’s trip came on the heels of a visit Friday by U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during which he announced a multi-year security pact with Ukraine. The British leader committed £2.5 billion (€2.9 billion) in military aid to Ukraine for 2024/2025, as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

France’s Séjourné pledged to boost joint cooperation with Ukraine and “reinforce Ukraine’s capacity to produce on its territory” with France’s top firms. France has also been negotiating a security pact with Ukraine but the details have yet to be announced.

Poland’s Donald Tusk is expected to visit Kyiv this week, possibly on Monday.

The visits by European leaders come in the wake of weeks of renewed Russian air strikes against Ukraine and amid fears that U.S. help has stalled due to a blocked Congress and this year’s American presidential election. On Saturday, Ukrainian air defenses recorded a total of 40 attacks.

The European Commission is in no hurry to prepare the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine and to speed up its military aid to the country amid an escalation in Russian missile strikes against civilian targets and the on-going war of attrition along the Ukrainian-Russian front lines.

As previously reported, the European Council in mid-December last year resulted in a unanimous decision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine after Hungary’s Prime Minister, who had threatened to use his veto against the decision, left the meeting room during the vote. As regards the financial assistance to Ukraine, he used his veto to block a decision.

The European Council invited the Council to adopt the negotiating framework for Ukraine once the relevant steps set out in the Commission recommendations in it Enlargement package of 8 November 2023 are taken. According to the Commission’s own assessment, Ukraine had completed four of the seven steps in the reform process (1, 2, 4 and 6) and more than 90 % of the actions under all steps.

Under the other steps (3 anti-corruption, 5 anti-oligarchs and 7 national minorities), there were only four laws that need to be enacted. The negotiating framework will be adopted once Ukraine has enacted all the laws.

Just before the European Council meeting in December, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated in a speech in the European Parliament that Ukraine had enacted three of the four outstanding recommendations that need to be implemented effectively. Among others, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) has approved an amended law on national minorities.

Commission still preparing next step
From this one could expect that it would not take much more time for the Commission to finalise the negotiating framework or even start the screening of the whole acquis (community law). The screening is a detailed examination of a candidate country’s compliance with EU law. Normally, the formal screening starts after the intergovernmental conference opening the negotiations.

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