Ukraine’s potential accession into the European Union could have an impact of between €110 billion and €136 billion on the bloc’s seven-year budget, according to a new report by the Bruegel think tank.
This would represent 0.10% and 0.13% of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The projection uses the existing rules and design of the 2021-2027 budget to extract a projection of how much money the war-torn nation would be entitled to after obtaining the coveted membership. Ukraine was first declared a candidate in June 2022 and was given the go-ahead for accession negotiations in December 2023.
The findings exclude the enormous costs of reconstruction, estimated to be at least €450 billion over the next decade, and assume Ukraine would eventually regain all the territories in the East that Russian troops have occupied.