After the governments of Georgia and Moldova submitted an application to join the European Union on Thursday, the EU leaders held back noticeably on Friday.
Neither EU Council President Charles Michel nor Commission President Ursula von der Leyen commented on their usual channels.
The French Presidency initially did not even acknowledge receipt of the applications for membership.
Thomas Gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.
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French Europe Minister Clément Beaune said at an informal meeting with his colleagues in Arles that they would discuss Ukraine's application, which was made on Monday.
"In any case, we have to think about our relations with Ukraine when the war is over." But now is "not the moment for a deeper relationship with Ukraine".
You can only support them in their fight against Russia.
Enlargement is a "long-term" issue
France is one of the most skeptical countries in the EU when it comes to enlargement.
President Emmanuel Macron had already opposed North Macedonia and Albania being given candidate status, along with the Netherlands and Denmark.
In March 2020, Paris and the other states withdrew their veto, in exchange for a reform of the accession negotiations.
So far, eight out of 27 member states have supported Ukraine's candidate status: the three Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.
Actually, it would now be up to the French Council Presidency to bring about a first procedural decision in the Council of Europe Ministers as to whether the applications should be pursued further.
In this case, the EU Commission would first be asked to assess the readiness for accession.
But a senior EU official played the ball back: "Next week the heads of state and government will meet just outside Paris," he said, "and enlargement will be one of their central themes".
This referred to the informal European Council at the Palace of Versailles.
The next steps will be discussed there.