The Ukrainian jackpot was secured – Next, there is a new problem on the table

Many EU leaders seemed exceptionally satisfied in Cyprus on Thursday evening. The reason is that two victories were secured on Thursday: the 90 billion euro support loan that Ukraine received and the new sanctions package against Russia.

“Today is a good day for Ukraine and Europe,” said the president of the commission Ursula von der Leyen.

According to the chairman of the commission, most of the preparatory work for implementing the 90 billion euro loan has already been done.

“I believe that it is possible to pay the first tranche of 45 billion euros assigned to 2026 during this quarter,” von der Leyen said.

One third of the loan to Ukraine will go to budget needs and two thirds to defense.

“The first package will be a drone package – drones from Ukraine, for Ukraine,” von der Leyen said.

The chairman of the commission was also satisfied with the agreement on Russia’s 20th sanctions package.

“The more Russia intensifies its war of aggression, the more Europe intensifies its support for Ukraine,” von der Leyen said.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi expressed his heartfelt thanks to the EU leadership in Cyprus. According to him, the money received will be used to strengthen air defense, secure energy infrastructure and protect people.

“We are also working to bring Russia to the negotiating table,” Zelenskyi said.

EU membership of Ukraine

President of the European Council Antonio Costa said that the next step is to promote Ukraine’s EU membership.

“The next step is to officially open the first negotiating clusters for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union,” Costa said.

However, not all EU countries want Ukraine to become a member of the Union without reservation and on a fast schedule.

Until now, Hungary has been the strongest opponent of Ukraine’s EU membership. Slovakia has also been critical. France, on the other hand, supports Ukraine’s EU membership politically, but opposes the accelerated procedure and emphasizes that the accession must remain merit-based.

Many other EU countries have also emphasized that Ukraine must fulfill the membership conditions before it can become an EU member.

On Thursday, Zelenskyi rejected the idea of ​​symbolic EU membership status for Ukraine and said that a country that defends Europe deserves full membership.

“Ukraine is defending itself and absolutely defending Europe. And it’s not defending Europe symbolically — people are really dying.”

Zelenskyi said that Ukraine already had enough “symbolic alliances, such as the Budapest memorandum, symbolic security guarantees and a symbolic path to NATO.”

High representative of the EU’s foreign and security policy Kaja Kalla said when he arrived at the meeting that Ukraine is on the path to membership, and that on Thursday we will discuss how to speed it up.

Prime Minister of Estonia Christian Michal rejoiced that Victor Orbán no longer holds anyone hostage and Ukraine gets its money and Russia new sanctions.

“The pace must be maintained, because the next topics will probably be the EU membership of Ukraine and Moldova, which is very important,” said Michal.

Prime minister Petteri Orpo (kok) considered the progress of the Ukraine loan and sanctions against Russia to be a good thing.

“Now let’s start discussing Ukraine’s membership path. I think this is a very positive thing and something good in the midst of all this,” Orpo said.

According to the Prime Minister, Finland’s position is to support Ukraine’s EU membership as quickly as possible.

“It must be merit-based and Ukraine must meet the conditions,” Orpo reminded, however.

EU:n avunantolauseke

The leaders of the EU countries arrived in Cyprus for a two-day informal summit to discuss, in addition to Ukraine, Iran, energy, security and the Union’s next seven-year budget.

Regarding European security, the President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides advocates the strengthening of the EU’s mutual assistance clause, i.e. Article 42.7. The background is that Cyprus, which is not a member of NATO, was targeted by Iranian drone attacks after the start of the war started by the United States and Israel.

Christodoulides said that the EU needs an operational plan for mutual aid if one of the member states is attacked.

However, many EU leaders, such as Prime Minister Orpo, emphasize that even if the aid clause for EU countries is strengthened, NATO must remain Europe’s defense solution.

“We are not building a European army or a competing structure here, but NATO is our defense solution.”

However, Orpo thought it was good that the concrete content of the EU aid clause was discussed.

According to Orpo, Article 42.7 has always been important to Finland.

“In the years when we were not members of NATO, it was perhaps even more important,” Orpo said.

According to the Prime Minister, the world has changed and now there are many other threats than direct military threats, so it is good to practice giving mutual help, according to Orpo.

“This is a typical Finnish activity: we prepare, we plan, we practice,” Orpo said.