Tag Archives: membership

The EU will need to substantially reform its rules before Ukraine can join, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Friday. Macron backs Kiev’s accession to the bloc, but warned that Ukraine must not be allowed to undercut EU industry. The European Council agreed on Thursday to open accession negotiations …

The European Union intends to begin discussions on admitting Ukraine and several other countries as early as October, European Council President Charles Michel announced on Monday. Enlargement “is no longer a dream,” Michel told the officials from Albania, Bulgaria and former Yugoslav states gathered at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.  …

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has failed to make Ukraine any concrete membership offer ahead of the US-led military bloc’s summit in Vilnius, instead proposing that Kiev is given the chance to ‘skip a step’ on the road to joining the bloc. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Stoltenberg insisted that NATO leaders will …

Both Finland and Sweden have taken one step closer to becoming full-fledged members of NATO after the ambassadors from all 30 member states of the US-led bloc signed accession protocols for the two Nordic countries on Tuesday. The accession ceremony was held at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where …

Ukraine has accepted that NATO membership is off the table, and will not take any further steps toward joining the US-led military alliance, Igor Zhovkva, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the Financial Times on Saturday. Nevertheless, Kiev wants a say in NATO’s policies. NATO leaders are set to …

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said it’s uncertain whether the military alliance will be able to overcome Turkey’s opposition to membership for Finland and Sweden. The two Nordic nations applied to join the US-led bloc in May, voicing concerns over their security amid Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. NATO …

Kosovo wishes to become a member of NATO and the European Union, the self-proclaimed republic’s prime minister Albin Kurti said on Wednesday, while visiting Washington. Serbia’s breakaway province had declared independence with US support in 2008, but has not been recognized by Belgrade, the UN, or even all the EU …

Finnish lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favor of requesting NATO membership. The vote came after parliament’s foreign affairs committee recommended the move due to a threat supposedly posed by Russian foreign policy to Europe. The 200-seat body overwhelmingly supported the application, with 188 lawmakers backing the decision and just eight …

NATO membership won’t make Finland and Sweden more secure, but would likely see them fighting somebody else’s wars and hosting American bases, Dr. Jan Oberg, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and director of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, has told RT. “It’s a disastrous decision,” Oberg said …

Sweden’s ruling Social Democratic Party has announced its support for the country’s NATO membership bid, following a similar move by the Finnish government. In a statement published on Sunday, the Social Democrats pledged “to work for Sweden to apply for membership in NATO.” However, the party leadership stressed that if …