Why the EU isn’t Ready for Ukraine

Europeans were overwhelmingly very pleased to hear about the fact that the EU granted Ukraine candidate status over the summer, in June 2022.

Both politicians and the people were in support of this resolution.

When I briefly spoke to the Ministry of Defense in Czechia with some friends about this issue, a high-profile minister claimed that

“Ursula von der Leyen wants them in. There’s no doubt about that. Most do,” Europe is on Ukraine’s side, he stressed.

Despite these good intentions, the EU is not ready for Ukraine for three reasons:

1. Economic shortcomings,
2. Rampant corruption, and
3. Defense.

Let’s briefly look at them and show why Ukraine belongs to the EU despite these shortcomings.

Photo by Yura Khomitskyi on Unsplash

1. Economic Shortcomings

Even prior to this devastating Russian war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian economy was crippled with corruption and slow bureaucracy.

Prior to February 24, Ukraine’s GDP per capita rivaled that of Egypt and Indonesia, placing it 37th in Europe, about half of Kazakhstan’s GDP per capita. And with the war, earlier estimates this year by the Kyiv School of Economics suggest that the economic damages in Ukraine have far…