Wf there is a genius loci, the Bucharest Palace of Parliament must arouse mixed feelings among Ukrainians. In this colossal building from the late days of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, the country was promised NATO membership in 2008 – in the abstract, with no concrete perspective. Fourteen years later, Kyiv is still awaiting the membership action plan that would lead to accession. On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the alliance met at the same place. Once again, Ukraine’s accession prospects were on the agenda, and once again Kiev’s ambitions were blocked.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally applied for NATO membership at the end of September. The Ukrainian President even called for an “accelerated procedure”. He hadn’t warned the Alliance. She would have strongly advised him not to write. At most, only a few countries on the eastern flank want to have such a debate. The vast majority, including Germany, think nothing of it. Diplomats refer to Article 10 of the founding treaty. It says that any European state can become a member, but only if it is able to “contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area”. This is not the case as long as Ukraine is at war with Russia. Rather, such a move would make the Alliance itself a war party.