Everything in the process of EU enlargement is political - that's why it is presented in Brussels in the most technical way possible.

This dynamic could be studied under the magnifying glass on Friday when Ursula von der Leyen presented the recommendations of her EU Commission on the readiness for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to join.

She had good news for Kyiv and Chişinău: They are to be given the status of candidate countries immediately, but must implement a series of further reforms before negotiations can actually begin.

Tbilisi is different: The country has to take a back seat and first fulfill conditions before it can call itself a candidate.

Did it possibly play a role that Ukraine is currently at war with Russia, while in Georgia there is "only" a conflict that has been frozen for fourteen years?

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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Von der Leyen gave the technocratically correct answer: “This whole process is performance-oriented.

Everything is strictly according to the textbook.” An hour later, it was a senior official who, of all people, referred to the political dimension of the decision in favor of Ukraine.

"It will give them a morale boost," he said.

The Ukrainians could not defeat the Russians with weapons, but they could with their motivation.

So that also played a role – and it is certainly not in the acquis communautaire, the acquis in EU legal texts.

North Macedonia is still waiting

Even the candidate status itself, which will be the focus of attention in Brussels until the decision of the European Council at the end of next week, is a political invention.

This can be seen clearly in the major eastward enlargement, which began with a fundamental decision in 1997 and ended in 2004 with the accession of eight countries plus Cyprus and Malta.

These countries were not given candidate status, rather they were given a specific date for the start of negotiations – they were thus automatically candidates.

It was only when it came to the countries of the Western Balkans that “candidate status” was needed to buy time.

North Macedonia (not yet under that name at the time) was awarded this title in 2005.

It then had to wait 15 years before the European Council decided to start negotiations.

Ukraine and Moldova can hope that things will go much faster for them.

However, they did not get a promise.

Rather, von der Leyen eloquently emphasized that each country has it in its own hands how quickly it goes forward.

The candidate status is granted with the understanding “that the countries have to undertake further reforms before they can make any progress.” She referred to the enlargement methodology, which was reformed in spring 2020.

You can now make faster progress than before, “but also fall behind”.

The procedure is “reversible” – France, in particular, advocated this at the time, where skepticism about EU expansion is particularly great.

"Hypothetically speaking, the European Council could also withdraw candidate status from a country,"