Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Could Ukraine Join the European Union? - TLDR News" video.

  1. NATO should be easier to join compared to the EU, joining the EU requires a lot of reforms at an economic, political and social level that takes years to do, joining NATO could be done quite quickly. With that said, I think the EU needs to widen the door for Ukraine on joining the EU but make it clear that it's up to Ukraine how soon they can join.
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  2. We should remember that joining the EU isn't just a quick switch you push to join, there are a lot of reforms and changes needed in the given country before they are ready to join, if you let countries join too soon when they are not ready, you could have a situation like we see in Poland and Hungary. With that said, I think the EU can show a much stronger commitment for Ukraine to join, help them out in areas they can, even maybe lets them in the single market and custom union but ultimately, it's really up to Ukraine how soon they can join depending on how quickly they are willing to accept the reforms needed, the same for other countries, Turkey is a prime example of that, they've been foot dragging on reforms in the country, decades later and they are still not in, so how soon a country can join the EU really boils down to the country in question doing the changes needed to join. With that said, the EU has it's own problems, I think the EU needs a few reforms, especially on veto rules where it needs to either be scraped or where you need 50%-60% of EU members for it to block something and not where it is now where just one member can hold the rest to ransom and with that, I think a lot more majority voting needs to come in, it could work on 60% population and 60% of EU members countries that are needed to pass something, at least that way, you would need a decent amount of the EU population as well as EU members countries to vote on it, that basically means a lot of smaller countries would have to vote for it as well, it would also mean leaders would have to argue their case to the EU people and win them over in passing a giving law and if say it is 60% and not 50% votes needed, it would likely create less division, Brexit is a prime example of that, because it was just 52%, it created a lot of division in the country, if it was over 60%, it would be hard for remainders to argue against Brexit and it would reduce a lot of the division, votes that are very tight tend to divide countries. Basically, the problem isn't about if the EU will let Ukraine join, the real problem is Poland and Hungary, as long as they keep trying to backslide on democracy, there is little chance of Ukraine joining until them two are sorted out and the reforms above are done, so as much as I would love to see Ukraine join the EU, Poland and Hungary are the main reason holding that back. My advice to the people of Ukraine, take advantage of a lot of the good will you've got with the EU and rest of the world because of this war, once things settle down with the war, if enough of the real reforms are done in Ukraine to join, I think Ukraine could be fast tracked in the EU but it really is up to the people of Ukraine how soon that happens, on the plus side, because of this war, assuming Russia loses and pulls out of Ukraine, I suspect the reforms needed in Ukraine will be much easier to achieve after the war because wars are usually a big wake-up call to do things that normally would be very difficult to do, in other words, there is every chance that Ukraine could speed up the process a lot once the dust settles, but I have to stress again, it is entirely up to the people of Ukraine to make it happen, the EU can only do so much for them.
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  3.  @deleteduser1877  He has a point, just look at Poland and Hungary which are backsliding on democracy, it's not a smart thing to bring in a country too soon until they do the reforms needed to become a real democracy, the irony is, Poland and Hungary could help Ukraine a lot here if they stop backsliding on Ukraine because it's those two countries which are giving a lot of other EU countries pause when it comes to the EU expanding which is ironic because Poland and Hungary wants the EU to expend but they are the two countries which are more or less blocking that happening.
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  4. It wouldn't happen during it, this is all about once the dust settles in Ukraine and the war.
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  5.  @roseforeuropa  They can join a lot quicker than they can the EU where with the EU you more or less have to turn your economy and political system upside down to do structural reforms, NATO on the other hand I think the main thing needed is a percentage of spending on the military. As for Turkey, they've not joined because a lot of the reforms needed are not easy for the people of Turkey to do. As for Ukraine, I didn't say the EU should just let them in, but they should show them more promise that they can join if Ukraine puts in the work to join, that's the case for any country that wants to join. So my advice is, read up on what I said before making stuff up.
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  6.  baileyboy73 baileyboy73  Joining NATO or not joining it, Putin was going to do what he did anyway, he's talked enough time how he sees the fall of the Soviet Union as a disaster for the country and wants to rebuild it, don't kid yourself in thinking Putin would stop regardless of if a country joined NATO or not. As for WW3, what's the alternative, we just let Putin take over country after country, get more powerful why we sit by and do nothing? If WW3 does happen, it's on Putin's back and in any case, Russia is being aggressive because of weak inaction from the west, if the west didn't do a tough response here, China would be very tempted to take Taiwan on, after all, the west will have shown that it will sit back and just watch. In truth, these tough sanctions on Russia will likely give China a moment of pause on Taiwan, in other words, tough action might have prevented a war with China from starting in the future but for now, it's too early to say.
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