French President Emmanuel Macron is laying out his vision of “a Europe that commands respect and ensures its own security.” He maintains Ukraine is part of this “European family” and “destined to join the Union when the time comes.”
These goals—European “strategic autonomy” and an entirely European Ukraine—could be more connected than even Macron realizes. As Ukraine struggles on the battlefield to overcome Russia’s advantages in manpower and materiel, Macron may have the chance to 1) end a war that has devastated Ukraine, 2) bring Ukraine into the European Union, and 3) help transform the continent into the “Power Europe” that he envisions.
A recent article in Foreign Affairs confirms that Russian negotiators agreed, during failed negotiations early in the war, that Ukraine could join the EU as part of a peace deal. Gaining EU membership would fulfill Ukraine’s longstanding goal of becoming more integrated into a free and prosperous Europe. It could also give Kyiv the security guarantees that it understandably desires in case Moscow attacks again in the future. Less well known than NATO’s collective self-defense policy, the EU’s common security policy obligates members to aid a member state that has suffered “armed aggression on its territory.”
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