U.S. magazine: Europe is selling Ukraine a pipe dream

Pars Today — The U.S. magazine Foreign Policy has assessed the European Union’s promise to Ukraine of eventual EU membership as hollow.

According to Pars Today, in an analysis titled “Europe Is Selling Ukraine a Pipe Dream,” the magazine argues that the EU’s pledge to make Ukraine a future member is empty. The European bloc, it claims, has toyed with Kiev by offering false hopes, praise, and meaningless criticism. By promising EU membership, the Union has kept Ukraine engaged, at times encouraging Kiev for certain actions and then discouraging it by criticizing other issues, such as government corruption.

The U.S. journal writes: “The corruption scandal within President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government quickly overshadowed recent positive EU assessments of Kiev’s progress toward membership. On November 12, following a major investigation into energy-sector corruption, the country’s ministers of energy and justice resigned. Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency accused eight officials of abuse of power, bribery, and illicit enrichment. This dealt a severe blow to Zelensky’s government at a time when Ukraine was facing mounting battlefield setbacks.”

Foreign Policy notes that just a week before this scandal came to light, the European Commission had released positive evaluations of Ukraine’s actions in its annual progress report on the country’s EU accession efforts. Three years ago, a few months after the war with Russia began, Ukraine was granted candidate status, and membership negotiations began in December 2023. Western officials argue that Ukraine has made significant strides toward EU membership during its grueling conflict with Russia—progress that even some Balkan countries have not achieved over a decade of peace. Ukraine, meanwhile, has set an ambitious deadline of 2028 for completing its EU accession process.

The other side of the coin: EU criticism of Ukraine

Foreign Policy also examines the other side of this hollow dream—the EU’s criticism of Ukraine. The magazine writes: “However, when it comes to rule of law, public administration reform, and democratic institutions, the praise stopped. The European Commission’s report warned that recent negative trends—including pressure on specialized anti-corruption bodies and civil society—must be decisively reversed. This evaluation effectively censures the events of this past summer, when Kiev attempted to control and limit its independent anti-corruption office.”

The magazine emphasizes that the EU’s main message to Ukraine is that, due to high-level corruption among officials close to the president, the country still faces a long and difficult road to EU membership.

The limits of EU encouragement

The EU’s seemingly well-intentioned encouragement loses credibility in the face of Ukraine’s harsh realities, such as continued military setbacks and widespread outages of water and electricity across cities.

Foreign Policy argues that the most significant barrier to EU membership is a non-negotiable precondition: Ukraine must push Russian forces back behind its borders. Until the war ends and all Russian-occupied territories are returned, full EU membership remains an impossible dream.

The magazine concludes: “If, as EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaya Kallas has stated, Ukraine’s membership is not on the EU’s near-term agenda, then European leaders are doing a disservice to Ukraine with their insincere encouragement—just as they have in the past, when they promised support for democratic reforms but failed to follow through.”