Home / News / Quick Impressions: Brussels by Klara Lindström and Fredrik Löjdquist

"Quick Impressions" is a format through which SCEEUS shares impressions from far and near: travel, events, and exchanges. Last week, Klara Lindström and Fredrik Löjdquist went to Brussels. Apart from warm and sunny weather, Brussels offered interesting and productive meetings at NATO, the European Commission, the European External Action Service (EEAS), as well as with think tanks and other colleagues.  

There is much talk in Brussels about Ukraine’s high work-pace and strong diligence in its EU accession process. The Ukrainian ambitions are inspiring and impressive, and they provide the EU and the enlargement agenda as a whole with energy, purpose, and motivation. That is reflected also within EU institutions: the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) has gone from having a handful to almost one hundred persons working specifically on Ukraine’s reconstruction and EU accession.  

But the European Commission can only do so much when it comes to the EU enlargement agenda – ultimately, its implementation is decided by the European Council. For those who recognise the political, economic, and military importance of enlarging the EU and of ensuring a Ukrainian membership, it will be crucial to secure support for enlargement among all leaders and populations across Europe.  

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DG NEAR in Brussels. Photo: SCEEUS

Intergovernmental dynamics will also be important to pay attention to as the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the financing of the EU’s military aid to Ukraine under the European Peace Facility (EPF) are to be agreed upon. Speaking of money, a piece of news that gained much attention in Brussels was that the EU and the leaders of the G7 countries reached consensus on using the profits of frozen Russian assets for a €45 billion loan to Ukraine.

There was much talk about Ukrainian institutional and technical capacity during our visit to Brussels, which coincided with one of the bilateral screening sessions between Ukraine and the European Commission. At these screenings, Ukrainian negotiators present the progress in adapting Ukraine’s institutions and laws to the relevant European norms and standards. This time, the session was devoted to issues related to the movement of people and migration under the Fundamentals Cluster, and more than 300 people from Ukraine participated in person or online. 

As Ukraine proceeds with its internal reforms and accession talks with the EU, the process will only increase in scope and complexity. That will demand even more technical capacity and specialised knowledge in the country. While the top echelon in Ukraine’s leadership demonstrates the skills needed, it was noted that lower-level Ukrainian civil servants still have a way to go. A contributing factor to the capacity challenges are the low salaries for Ukrainian government officials. The importance of ensuring an efficient structure and sufficient long-term funding of technical assistance to Ukraine was therefore repeatedly emphasised in Brussels.  

Finally, as Ukraine’s EU accession process moves ahead with unprecedented speed, it will be as important to pay attention to security issues as to technical details. Given the geopolitical context, concrete measures are needed to make security issues integral to the enlargement agenda. There are already several suggestions on the table, including expanding the mandate of the EU Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine (EUMAM) and introducing qualified majority voting (QMV) for decisions in the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). However, as with the implementation of the enlargement agenda, these reforms are dependent on consensus among the member states. If a visit to Brussels gives but one lasting impression, it is that the future of the EU is dependent on the political will of the EU member states themselves. Ultimately, this also means that the European citizens have agency in shaping the future security and prosperity of the EU, both of which a Ukrainian membership could contribute to. This will, not least, require political leadership in Europe.

Fredrik Löjdquist & Klara Lindström

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