Mediaboss Marketing

BRUSSELS (AP) The European Union agreed Thursday to put Ukraine on a path toward EU membership, acting with uncharacteristic speed and unity to pull the embattled country further away from Russias influence and bind it more closely to the West.

Meeting at a summit in Brussels, leaders of the EUs 27 nations mustered the required unanimous approval to grant Ukraine candidate status. That sets in motion a process that could take years or even decades.

The EU also granted candidate status to the tiny country of Moldova, another former Soviet state that borders Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pronounced it a good day for Europe.

WATCH: What European Union membership would mean for war-torn Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his gratitude and declared: Ukraines future is within the EU.

Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Moscow invaded on Feb. 24. Thursdays decision was unusually rapid for the EU. But the war and Ukraines request for fast-track consideration lent urgency to its cause.

To gain EU membership, countries must meet a detailed host of economic and political conditions, including a commitment to the rule of law and other democratic principles. Ukraine, among other things, will also have to curb entrenched government corruption and adopt other reforms.

The European Parliament endorsed Ukraines bid hours before the summit started, passing a resolution that called on EU governments to move without delay and live up to their historical responsibility.

It will strengthen Ukraine, it will strengthen Europe. It is a decision for freedom and democracy and puts us on the right side of history, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said ahead of the final announcement.

The EUs nations have been united in backing Ukraine in its fight against Russias invasion with money and weapons, adopting unprecedented economic sanctions against the Kremlin.

EU candidate status doesnt give an automatic right to join the bloc and doesnt provide any immediate security guarantees.

Once a country gains membership, however, it is covered under an EU treaty clause that says if a member falls victim to armed aggression, the other EU countries are obligated to assist it by all the means in their power.

The main benefits of EU membership, though, are economic, since it gives access to a market of 450 million consumers with free movement of labor, goods, services and capital.

Ukraine has long aspired to join NATO, too, but the military alliance is not about to offer an invitation, in part because of governmental corruption, shortcomings in the countrys defense establishment, and its contested borders.

READ MORE: German Chancellor Scholz says G-7 will support Ukraine for as long as necessary

Before the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO, which he has condemned for its eastward spread toward Russias flank. But earlier this month, he did not seem bothered by Ukraines determination to get closer to the EU, saying it is not a military pact and thus we have no objections.

The membership process can be long and tortuous.

Turkey, for example, applied for membership in 1987, received candidate status in 1999, and had to wait until 2005 to start talks for actual entry. Only one of more than 30 negotiating chapters has been completed in the years since, and the whole process is at a standstill as a result of various disputes between the EU and Turkey.

Similarly, several Balkan countries have been seeking without success for many years to join the EU.

European officials have said that Ukraine has already adopted about 70% of the EU rules and standards, but they also have pointed to corruption and the need for deep political and economic reforms in the country.

Considerable efforts will be needed, especially in the fight against corruption and the establishment of an effective rule of law, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said. But I am convinced that it is precisely the (postwar) reconstruction of Ukraine that will provide opportunities to take important steps forward.

Read this article:
European Union puts Ukraine on a path toward EU membership - PBS NewsHour

Russias invasion of Ukraine has driven a wedge between the European Union and China, and for the first time in the history of their relationship, Brussels is ready to go on the offensive.

The worlds second and third-largest economies have been at loggerheads since March 2021, when the European Parliament halted ratification of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment over human rights concerns. But since Russian forces entered Ukraine on Feb. 24, relations have cratered, and there seems to be little prospect of any reconciliation.

Brussels is irate at Beijings refusal to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine. In the early days of the war, EU officials hoped that China would try to broker a peace deal, but a frosty virtual summit between EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 1 dashed these expectations. More importantly though, the war in Ukraine has forced Europe to start thinking geopolitically for the first time since 1991. EU countries growth expectations for 2022 have been slashed amid spiking energy prices. The EUs long-standing assumption that economics can be a substitute for actual foreign policy in dealing with authoritarian states now looks like a bad bet.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has driven a wedge between the European Union and China, and for the first time in the history of their relationship, Brussels is ready to go on the offensive.

The worlds second and third-largest economies have been at loggerheads since March 2021, when the European Parliament halted ratification of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment over human rights concerns. But since Russian forces entered Ukraine on Feb. 24, relations have cratered, and there seems to be little prospect of any reconciliation.

Brussels is irate at Beijings refusal to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine. In the early days of the war, EU officials hoped that China would try to broker a peace deal, but a frosty virtual summit between EU leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 1 dashed these expectations. More importantly though, the war in Ukraine has forced Europe to start thinking geopolitically for the first time since 1991. EU countries growth expectations for 2022 have been slashed amid spiking energy prices. The EUs long-standing assumption that economics can be a substitute for actual foreign policy in dealing with authoritarian states now looks like a bad bet.

In the past few weeks, the European Commission has introduced an ambitious suite of policies to distance itself economically from China. Some predate the war: The proposed anti-coercion mechanism that would enable Brussels to impose trade retaliation measures on imports from countries that apply economic coercion to EU member states was put forward by the European Commission in December 2021. It clearly targets Beijing, which in 2021 put Lithuania under a de facto trade embargo after Vilnius allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in the country. But most of the European Commissions new, China-oriented policy initiatives were minted after Feb. 24.

In May, at the EU-Japan summit, Brussels and Tokyo pledged to deepen our exchanges on China, notably with regard to security dynamics. That same month, Brussels announced that it would conduct an upgraded trade dialogue with Taiwan in June, one ostensibly aimed at deepening EU-Taiwan cooperation in semiconductor manufacturing. In reality, it was a signal that the EU is willing to reopen discussions on boosting links with Taiwan irrespective of Chinas reaction: This proposal was previously floated in late 2021 but scrapped for fear of backlash from Beijing.

More initiatives are in the pipeline, not explicitly directed against China but offering tools for a drawn-out fight. EU institutions are negotiating a new mechanism that will allow the bloc to assess trading partners industrial subsidies and apply compensatory tariffs. Brussels could certainly use this against China, which has heavily subsidized many of its export-oriented domestic industries. This year, the European Commission will table another trade mechanism to prevent imports made using forced labor from entering the bloc. This, too, could create an open-ended instrument for trade regulators to dial up protectionist pressure on Beijing.

To become law, the European Commissions proposals need member states signoff. Before the war, this was the key sticking point. No longer. Central and Eastern Europe have turned particularly hawkish. Russias aggression has reminded them how much they depend on the U.S. security umbrella. Taiwan has stepped up its economic engagement with the region. And those Eastern European leaders with close ties to Beijing are increasingly isolated. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban can still hold Brussels hostage over foreign-policy votes, where EU rules require unanimity, but not these other initiatives, which require only a qualified majority

Western EU member states with decadeslong economic links to China are prevaricating, but the consensus there is shifting too. Germanys implicit policy toward authoritarian states, known as Wandel durch Handel or change through trade, lost all legitimacy on Feb. 24. During a recent tour in Asiawhich did not include ChinaGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for reducing German dependency on individual countries, a barb aimed at Beijing. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has invoked golden power rules to block Chinese corporate acquisitions. With 3 percent of Italian exports and nearly 8 percent of German exports bound for China every year, Rome and Berlin are not seeking full economic decoupling but will certainly be less hostile to the European Commissions initiatives on China than in the past.

European politics is diverse and complicated, with many veto points. This makes it hard for the blocs foreign-policy stance to change quickly. Brusselss initiatives to reduce the blocs economic and political exposure to China have more traction in some EU member states than in others, and business groups will keep working behind the scenes to prevent decoupling. Yet the trend lines are clearand probably irreversible. Before Ukraine, Brussels-Beijing relations were already cooling. The year 2022 will be remembered as the year the frost settled in.

Read the original here:
Ukraine Has Soured the European Union on China - Foreign Policy

After the European Union took just weeks to decide on candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova, Western Balkan countries - some of which started their accession path more than a decade ago - felt the bloc owed them a sign.

Half of them Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia threatened to boycott a summit with EU leaders just two days before it was meant to take place.

At the eleventh hour, Bulgaria's opposition leader announced that his party would lift its veto on North Macedonia accession based on a compromise proposal brought forward by the French presidency of the Council.

But this may be the only sign the Western Balkans receive this week with an EU diplomat stressing on Wednesday that there were "no conclusions foreseen nor very concrete decisions" to expect from EU heads of state on Western Balkan enlargement during their Council summit on Thursday and Friday.

That means that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo will, once more, be kept waiting.

EU leaders are, however, widely expected to grant Ukraine and Moldova candidate status, days after the Commission recommended such a step and weeks after they filled out all the necessary paperwork.

In contrast, Bosnia and Herzegovinaapplied to join the bloc in 2016 and has yet to receive candidate status despite the Commission endorsing the move in 2019.

Albania applied in 2009, received candidate status in 2014 and got an all-clear from the Commission to start negotiations in 2018. But they have not yet started.

Serbia also applied in 2009, got candidate status in 2012 and started negotiations in 2014.Montenegro has a similar trajectory. It applied in 2008, secured candidate status in 2010 and accession negotiations started in the summer of 2012.

But the longest-standing bid is North Macedonia's. The country of two million inhabitants first applied in 2005 with the Commission recommending that negotiations start in 2009. They have not yet started.

Kosovo, meanwhile, is a potential candidate but despite first signalling it wants to join the bloc back in 2008, it is nowhere closer. That's because its independence is not recognised internationally, and especially not by Serbia. Instead, the EU acknowledged its European perspective, another symbolic gesture that makes note of its aspiration to become a member state.

The Commission emphasised earlier this week as it endorsed granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova that the whole accession process is "merit-based" and "dynamic".

Neither Ukraine nor Moldova will be entitled to more EU funds and it doesn't mean that negotiations will start anytime soon.

Instead, the Commission and EU leaders will demand they both make progress on reforms to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, media and civil society as well as independent institutions that fight against corruption and cronyism. Only when they have made significant progress on these conditions, will actual negotiations be allowed to proceed.

And even after negotiations start, the whole process can falter if reform progress doesn't continue at pace, according to the Commission.

This largely explains the delay for Serbia "as it is not in President Vucic's interests to enact reforms that EU membership requires, as these would undermine his patronage system and his hold on power," Luigi Scazzieri, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told Euronews.

EU candidate countries are also expected to align themselves with the bloc's policies and programmes and "there is a serious lack of alignment" from Serbia, an EU diplomat said. For instance, Serbia has condemned Russia's aggression on Ukraine but has so far refused to implement any sanctions against Moscow, a step Brussels traditionally expects from its partners.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is also in that category, according to another EU official who affirmed on Wednesday that "for two years we have seen no reform and no movement from Bosnia" on the 14 priorities the EU outlined it needed to work on.

Yet, for all of its claims that reforms mean progress, this has not been the case for North Macedonia and Albania.

"The two countries have done everything that the EU has asked them to do, so the EU going back on its word and refusing to open negotiations as it said it would undermines its credibility,"Scazzieri explained.

Their bid was first blocked byFrance and the Netherlands which argued the enlargement process needed to be improved before new countries were brought into the fold and then by Greece over a dispute over the country's name which led to a historic deal between the two countries in the summer of 2018. Now it's being blocked by Bulgaria.

Sofia wants formal recognition that North Macedonia's culture and language are heavily influenced by Bulgaria as well as stronger protections for the country's Bulgarian minority.

Albania, whose bid is coupled with North Macedonia's, has been collateral damage.

But now that the leader of Bulgaria's opposition,Boyko Borissov, has said he is in favour of a French proposal to unblock the situation, which would entail North Macedonia adding an amendment to its constitution to acknowledge its strong historical and cultural links with Bulgaria in exchange for Sofia backing the negotiation framework, movement could soon happen.

It is dependent on Macedonian lawmakers backing it by a two-thirds majority as required for constitutional changes.

The delays for Albania and North Macedonia have had a "negative impact on the credibility of the EU," the Commission underlined in its latest annual enlargement report.

For Dimitar Bechev, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, "there are two schools of thought" on the war's impact on enlargement.

"One is saying that now the EU is unfair because it's paying so much attention to Ukraine and letting the Western Balkans slip. But also there's a school of thought which goes something like: there's momentum behind enlargement, let's get on the bandwagon and get the Western Balkans on the radar. The overall is that there's expectation that the EU should be more forthcoming," he told Euronews.

This could also open the door to movement for Bosnia and Herzegovina despite the lack of overall progress.

"If Ukraine and Moldova are given candidate status, the case for granting Bosnia candidate status as well would be stronger, given that many EU leaders have said Ukraine and Georgia are still a long way from membership," Scazzieri at the Centre for European Reform pointed out.

"Bosnia's institutions are still very dysfunctional. If Bosnia does become a candidate, it will face a very uphill path," he said.

For Serbia however, the events in Ukraine do not change much, and progress is unlikely "so long as Kosovo is there," Bechev said.

"If there was no sovereignty dispute, you could see Serbia making strides and basically because it has the administrative capacity and the size and everything and some friends in the EU. They could have been easily the next country to accede to the EU but Kosovo is such an impediment," he went on.

Bechev now predicts that Montenegro is the most likely to join the EU first.

"It's the most advanced in the negotiations, it has no open political issues with neighbours, it's very small and it's digestible," he said, adding that all that needed his political will on both sides and the country of 620,000 could be a member by the end of the decade.

Conscious of the idea taking root in the Western Balkans that no matter how much they reform, their membership bids may not progress accordingly, the EU is now looking into a European Political Community to which third countries could dock themselves to and have closer ties with the bloc.

French President Emmanuel Macron first floated the idea during a conference in early May but has publicly remained light on the details. He has however reiterated multiple times that this would not be a consolation prize and that countries could be part of the community as they continue their accession journey.

EU leaders are expected to discuss the idea during their summit on Thursday and an EUdiplomat from Western Europe said their country is very open to such an idea, underlining however that member states would have to come up with criteria for who could join it. These could include, they said, shared democratic values with the EU which would therefore exclude counties such as Belarus under its current regime.

View original post here:
How close are the Western Balkans to joining the European Union? - Euronews

Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have all seen price increases exceeding 90%. PHOTO BY JAMIE ON UNSPLASH

Text size

In the six years since British voters opted to leave the European Union in June 2016, home prices have skyrocketed across both the U.K. and Europe.

However, uncertainty surrounding Brexit put a years-long damper on prices across the U.K., which didnt complete its departure from the EUuntil early 2020. As a result, European housing markets appear to have the edge over the U.K.s, according to a report Wednesday by Knight Frank.

All told, home prices in Knight Franks Global House Price Index in the 27 countries that make up the EU have increased by 39.3% since June 2016, with nearly half of that growth occurring in the past two years. In the U.K., home prices have increased by 30.8% since the Brexit vote.

More:Manhattan Luxury Sales Just Had Their Slowest Week Since December 2020

Central European countries have seen particularly strong price growth, with Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic all seeing price increases exceeding 90% in the past six years. The Netherlands and Luxembourg saw the next highest rates of price growth, at 76.3% and 70.1%, respectively. Lithuania, Portugal, Estonia, Latvia, and Germany all saw rates of growth higher than 50%.

Italy, Spain and Greece experienced some of Europes lowest price growth during the same period, and may see price drops as housing and financial markets continue to tighten, according to Knight Frank.With the U.S. and U.K. moving more swiftly than the European Union to raise interest rates and tame inflation and home price growth, buyers from both regions may soon look to EU properties as currency play in order to take advantage of a weaker euro, Knight Frank notes.

This article originally appeared on Mansion Global.

View post:
The European Union Has Outpaced the U.K. in Home Price Growth Since Brexit Vote - Barron's

The Georgian Government is "mobilised to meet all conditions" set by the European Union for granting member candidate status to Georgia in a timely manner, in order to obtain the status on time, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at a briefing at the Government Administration on Friday.

"[W]e heard the assessments, promises and statements made by the European leaders that as soon as we deliver on the priorities defined by them, we will be granted a candidacy status. Of course, it gives us an additional incentive to deliver all those conditions, all those priorities, that were defined by the EU in the most efficient manner. We stand ready for this", the PM said.

Garibashvili emphasised his Government had additional motivation to fulfil the conditions set by the EU "in the shortest possible time", adding the European perspective had been granted to Georgia deservedly, and Europe had opened the door to the country.

It was a truly historic day. Georgia received what we deserved. It is a merit-based achievement. The European perspective has been granted to Georgia deservedly. You saw that it was publicly and openly worded that Europe was opening its doors wide to our country in a real sense [with the decision]. It is a recognition of the aspiration of our people towards European ideals. It is a recognition of our loyalty towards them. It is a recognition of our daring, principled position, our struggle and of the work delivered by our government during these 10 years, Garibasvhili said.

He also congratulated Ukraine and Moldova on their recognition by the EU with the membership candidate status, wishing the two partner states success and prosperity and highlighting the ongoing heaviest war in Ukraine and the related difficult situation in Moldova.

Read the original here:
PM: Gov't "mobilised to meet all conditions" set by European Union for membership candidate status - Agenda.ge