Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Could Ukraine Actually Join the EU?" video.

  1. I think the political stability is more important than the money longer term, the EU can help them create a political and economic stable environment, that will bring in a lot of forign investment in the country and don't get me wrong, the money helps to get them on track but the reforms are far more important and in any case, joining the EU would help them in all areas to becoming a modern country.
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  2.  @Sharyf  NATO membership won't change anything in fast tracking EU membership for Ukraine, like the video above said, there is no fast track into the EU, apart from how quickly the country is willing to do the reforms needed and we've seen with other countries that have joined the EU, the ones that get stuck in and do the reforms, tend to join much sooner than the countries that drag their feet. NATO membership should be a lot easier for Ukraine to join but EU membership is a lot more valuable as that has tangible benefits for everyone in the country when it comes to lifting living standards. We should also remember that before the war, Ukraine was pulling in two directions, towards the EU and towards Russia, because of the war, it would be brave of any politician in Ukraine to push for closer relations with Russia now, because of all that, it's very likely that reforms to join the EU will be easier for Ukraine to achieve, from a political and public level and that can speed up the process a lot.
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  3. I think if the people really get behind the government in pushing the reforms through, it could happen sooner rather than later, especially if there is a strong government that sides with the people on getting the reforms done and exposes the ones that don't want to do the reforms, guilt trip them into doing the reforms basically, after all, I suspect after the war, the people of Ukraine will want a lot of political and economic reforms, the ones that want to push the reforms should expose the ones that don't to the people and considering what Russia has done here, it would be brave of any politicians trying to hold back the reforms as they could look like a puppet of Russia and I doubt any politician will want to be seen as being close to Russia with everything going on. So yeah, I think reforms could happen a lot quicker than they could before the war.
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  4. I think EU membership is likely to happen sooner than it would have done before Russia invaded Ukraine and the reason for that, Russia invading the country has turned it upside down, once the dust settles, there are going to be some big changes, politically and economically and it's very likely once Ukraine kick Russia out, it's going to be much easier for them to push the political and economic reforms needed to join the EU a lot sooner than it would have done, after all, Russia has scared them and it would be brave of any politicians in Ukraine to go against any of the reforms needed to join the EU, as long as it's reasonable reforms and because of that, it's very likely that they will be able to get the reforms needed a lot sooner than they would normally be able to do and considering the popular support the EU has among the people of Ukraine, I think reforms will happen a lot quicker than they could before the war, but this can only start once Ukraine kicks Russia out. There is another aspect to all this and that's the EU, at the moment, the EU isn't ready to allow any country in the EU until it sorts out Hungary and Poland as well as do reforms to the union, in other words, treaty change is needed before any new country can join, specifically on vetoes and majority voting rules, I think they need to go to QMV in a lot more areas, otherwise it would be a lot more gridlock as more countries join it. The good news is, there is a lot of time to get all this done, joining the EU is no fast process so the EU has time to reform, but I think they have to do it over the next 5 year, but whiles all this is going on, there is no reason why the EU and Ukraine can't build a closer relationship, which would get them more ready for membership and optimistically, they could join in a decade, but there are too many factors involved on both sides that need to be resolved before they can join. Ultimately, how quickly Ukraine can join the EU is really up to Ukraine themselves, how quickly they do the reforms needed to join in the key areas that are needed for EU membership, we've seen with other countries that joined the EU, countries that drag their feet on reforms take a long time to join whereas other countries that get things moving can join in a much quicker time frame and I think because of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, once the dust settles, I suspect it's going to be easier to get the reforms needed to join the EU, support from the public will likely be high, operation to the reforms will likely be low considering the threat of Russia, all of this can speed up the process of reforms a lot quicker than it normally would have happened.
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  5. That's true but I don't think countries like Ukraine and others that want to join should be punished because of one or two countries in the EU backsliding, namely, Hungary and Poland. With that said, the EU will need reforms before it lets any new country in, the veto and majority voting rules need reform, maybe having a lot more areas moving to QMV rules, if they get those reforms done, that should help to bring Hungary and Poland back on track, the alternative is that the EU will have to find a way to kick Hungary and Poland out of the EU, but in any case, no country should join the EU until these reforms are done otherwise it would create more gridlock.
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