According to a report by the Observer Network on December 15, European Council President Charles Michel suddenly announced that the European Union has decided to start accession negotiations with Ukraine. It is reported that from the 14th to the 15th local time, the European Union held a summit in Brussels, and the main content of the meeting was to discuss "whether to decide" to start Ukraine's accession negotiations, as well as to vote on providing 50 billion euros of economic assistance to Ukraine. Prior to this, the outside world was "not optimistic" about Ukraine's approval to start accession negotiations, so when the news came out, international **, including Reuters and the Associated Press, said that it was "unexpected".
Reuters said that Ukraine's accession process was able to start because the EU adopted an "abnormal" approach, which made this "historic decision". It turns out that Hungary, a member of the European Union, has always been "resolutely opposed" to Ukraine's accession to the EU, and according to EU regulations, the proposal needs to be "unanimously adopted" by all member states. Why, then, did the EU finally start the accession process, and did Hungary "reverse" and express its support?Not really.
It turned out that before the vote, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and France's Macron called Hungarian leader Orban aside and had a "private exchange" with him, so during the official vote, the Hungarian representative actually left, and because "no one objected", the remaining 26 EU countries unanimously approved Ukraine's accession process. It stands to reason that Hungary would not have made concessions so easily, and the reason for the "fled" was, according to Orban, because the 26 countries insisted on making "meaningless, irrational and wrong" decisions, and "Hungary did not want to get involved".
It should be said that this is only a "superficial reason", and the real reason is that in order to prevent Hungary from "voting against", the EU has previously modified the voting method, from "unanimously approved" to "approved by a majority vote", but the EU does not want to "break the convention", so it "dissuades" Hungary. To put it bluntly, even if Hungary insists on voting "against", it will be "useless" in the end, because the EU will adopt the method of "majority vote" to start Ukraine's accession process, and when the EU "breaks the convention", Hungary will not look good on the face, and it is better for Hungary to "give up voting".
From this point of view, the West's "unexpected surprise" and "inexplicable surprise" are actually untenable, and there is a bit of a "performance" component, at least they know that the EU has revised the "voting method", and there should be certain expectations for Ukraine to finally start the "accession" process. The reason why they "pretended to surprise" is probably to create a drama, so as to increase the "shock" of Ukraine's initiation of the accession process, so as to highlight that Ukraine has won a huge "political victory".
For example, EU President Charles Michel, who made the announcement, said it was a "very strong political signal".European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it a "strategic decision". The White House also welcomed the move as a "critical step" towards achieving the Euro-Atlantic vision. B BC, CNN, and the Associated Press simply said that this was a "historic political victory" for Ukraine, a "striking reversal", and "a huge political impetus for Kyiv". The Economist even claimed that Zelensky "received his Christmas gift in advance".
Why such a "warm celebration", "warm congratulations"?You know, there is still a long way to go to start the accession process and formally join the EU, and the relevant negotiations "often take 10 years or more", is it worth being so happy?The reason why we want to highlight "unexpected", "exciting" and "festive" is because there has been too much bad news about Ukraine recently, Zelensky's trip to the United States only fetched less than $300 million, and Biden even said that the United States' support for Ukraine "can last one day at a time", Senator Vance simply persuaded Biden to accept the reality of Ukraine's "land and peace".
In the midst of the darkness, suddenly the EU approved Ukraine's accession process, so there can be no "overwhelming" celebration?That's right, Ukraine lost militarily, but politically it achieved a "stunning victory", and this is the message that the West wants to send, which is called "losing people do not lose battles", also called "dead ducks with hard mouths". So, what does the EU's approval of Ukraine's accession negotiations mean for Russia?It should be said that for Putin, this is good news, which means that it is one step closer to ending the conflict, because the EU will not allow war-torn countries to join the EU, which will only drag the EU down.
Similarly, just some time ago, the NATO Secretary General said that Ukraine is "unprecedented" closer to joining NATO, and at that time we also pointed out that this is good news for Putin, because if Ukraine wants to join NATO, it must end the war, otherwise it is impossible, Ukraine is close to joining NATO, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is not far from the end. Similarly, Ukraine is close to joining the European Union, so peace talks with Russia are not far away, which is of course good news for Putin.