European Parliament's largest group urges NATO to invite Ukraine to alliance
The center-right group in the European Parliament — the European People's Party — calls on NATO to lay the groundwork for Kyiv's accession into the alliance in the long term.
Rubryka reports that the European People's Party has adopted a position document.
"The EPP Group expects that the upcoming Vilnius and Washington summits pave the way to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO and that the accession process will start after the war is over and be finalized as soon as possible," the published document says.
According to the EPP, the largest pan-European party association in Europe, this step will strengthen the Alliance and be a further step towards "sustainable peace in Europe."
The authors of the declaration stress that the previous security solutions for Ukraine – from the Budapest memorandum to the conclusions of the Bucharest NATO summit – did not prevent Russia's full-scale invasion, and the country's permanent presence in the so-called gray zone will only encourage Moscow to resort to aggression again in the future.
According to the EPP members, the invitation for Ukraine to become a NATO member will be a powerful signal for Putin and the "most hardcore imperial hawks" in the Kremlin and an argument for them to finally understand that Ukraine is no longer within their sphere of influence.
The EPP Group chair, Manfred Weber, said that Manfred Weber said in a statement on Tuesday that the alliance needs to prepare for a "membership perspective" as soon as the war ends.
"We cannot imagine Ukraine outside Europe's security architecture after the war," Weber said, adding that "at the NATO summits in Vilnius in July and in Washington next year, we must correct the mistakes of the past."
Ukraine submitted a request for accelerated accession to NATO last September. Kyiv insists that at the alliance's July meeting in Lithuania, the allies make a concrete public gesture regarding Ukraine's approach to membership.
At the same time, Washington and some Western European capitals prefer to avoid the discussion about membership and call to focus on practical assistance to Ukraine in the fight against the aggressor. However, some Eastern NATO allies want Ukraine to send a meaningful signal in Vilnius and build closer institutional ties between the Alliance and Kyiv.
