EU Commission gave a green light to Ukraine and Moldova for EU candidate status ahead of the Brussels summit next week. President Zelenskyy tweeted “the 1st step on the EU membership path that’ll certainly bring our Victory closer”
Membership candidate status is the beginning of the long accession process to the bloc followed by accessions negotiations. However, it does not mean the accession or something near, it may take a long path to be a member
Briefly viewing the situation with the EU membership, currently North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are holding the membership candidates Turkey being the earliest granted one (1999 and accession talks began in 2005). Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo have been given “potential candidates”, and lastly, the Commission said on Friday that Georgia should be “given the perspective to become a member of the European Union” but not yet granted candidate status
In general, the enlargement process of the bloc is controversial within the bloc as well. It requires unanimous decision of all the current members to act. Furthermore, certain conditions and standards are imposed by the Eu such as the candidates must adopt democratic norms and undertake reforms to meet EU rules, regulations, and standards in a wide range of areas including the economy and the rule of law