However E.U. membership would require assembly the bloc’s requirements for overhauling the economic system, reining in corruption and public debt, guaranteeing aggressive and honest elections, and safeguarding the independence of the courts and the media, in addition to altering legal guidelines and rules to adjust to 80,000 pages of guidelines on issues starting from environmental safety to meals hygiene.

A number of nations which have been candidates for years, together with Turkey, are far forward of Ukraine within the course of, however are nonetheless not thought-about near approval. And as Charles Michel, president of the European Council, the group of E.U. heads of presidency, famous on Friday, admitting one other nation to the membership would require the unanimous approval of the 27 which are already members.

Ukraine’s corruption downside, specifically, was a priority lengthy earlier than the struggle. This week, the federal government carried out a sequence of anti-corruption raids, some focusing on highly effective figures allied with Mr. Zelensky, signaling to Brussels that it takes the difficulty significantly.

Debate this week amongst diplomats over assist for Ukraine got here down to at least one phrase in the assertion they issued after the assembly: “progress.”

Whereas some E.U. nations wished to acknowledge Ukraine’s “progress” towards assembly the bloc’s requirements, others refused to go that far and insisted that the phrase be modified to “efforts,” in line with 4 officers who participated within the conferences and spoke anonymously as a result of they weren’t licensed to share particulars of the confidential discussions.

It in the end took two conferences to settle the matter, however the extra cautious language carried the day.

The assertion cited “the appreciable efforts that Ukraine demonstrated within the latest months in the direction of assembly the goals underpinning its candidate standing for E.U. membership, welcomed Ukraine’s reform efforts in such troublesome occasions, and inspired the nation to proceed on this path.”

Reporting was contributed by Marc Santora, Richard Pérez-Peña, Andrew E. Kramer, Dan Bilefsky, Shashank Bengali and Monika Pronczuk.