Difficult Times Demand Bold Action from the EU.

Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union project, even though Yanukovych had promised to pursue EU membership as part of his re-election campaign.) The EU membership process requires candidate countries to pass a series of reforms to adhere to the conditions and principles enshrined in Articles 6 and 49 of the Treaty of the European Union, and the 1993 Copenhagen criteria.10 These requirements touch on fea. [...] On February 1, the European Council supported the revision of the EU’s budget to allow for the provision of 50 billion Euros ($54 billion) in macro-financial support to Ukraine in the form of a 2024-2027 Ukraine Facility. [...] At its January 2023 launch, the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform (MDCP) brought together Ukraine, the EU, the G7, and several IFIs to coordinate economic assistance to Ukraine in line with Ukraine’s needs, its efforts to advance on the path to EU accession, and the requirements of its donors. [...] Mid-December 2023 polling in Georgia shows that the dedication of the Georgian people to the goal of European integration is unwavering and has shown a significant increase in favor of political and economic cooperation with the EU over the last year. [...] Close the Gray Zone EU enlargement, to include Ukraine and Moldova at a minimum, but ideally also Georgia, would effectively close the gray space that has existed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 in the area that perhaps matters most to many citizens – the economy.