Why the EU is like trying to order a pizza

Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform think tank, warned that associate membership might be the best that Ukraine and other countries could hope for if they want to join the EU in the near future.

“One of the reasons why enlargement is likely not going to happen is because of the difficulties of changing the voting rules,“ he said. “Because of that, a lot of countries do not want enlargement because they think it'll produce some deadlock in decision-making.“

Arguably, there already is some deadlock when proposals don't move or only move after a decade of debate.

Grant said decision-making procedures aren't to blame: “The fundamental problem is that the member states don't agree. There's no consensus on a lot of areas, whether it's what to do with Israel or the capital markets union,” he said.

Solving that needs “strong leaders who can knock heads together and build a consensus.” The two most natural choices would be the EU's largest states, France and Germany, but Grant sees France's Emmanuel Macron as “on the way out in less than a year,” and Merz as “not good at building coalitions.”