By approving the start of accession talks with Kyiv, the EU has shown Vladimir Putin that he is on the wrong track. The decision is all the more important given that in the US, Republicans are blocking US military aid.

The European Union (EU) sent a clear message to Ukraine and Vladimir Putin on December 14 when it gave the go-ahead for the opening of negotiations on Kyiv's accession to the continental bloc. In doing so, the EU told Ukraine that the country had been right to cling to its long-held hope of joining a free, prosperous and democratic Europe. To Putin, it was a way of signalling that he was on the wrong track with his bluster about the discord, disunity and eventually collapse of this part of the Western world, which he hates.

This demonstration of unity was all the more important as bad news has not been in short supply since fall, when Ukraine's counter-offensive in parts of its Russian-occupied territory was declared a failure. Ukraine's impotence has fuelled doubt in Washington, and prompted the Republican Party, tempted by narrow-minded isolationism, to block crucial military aid to Kyiv. In contrast to Russia, Ukraine's Western allies have still not fully grasped the economic implications of the first high-intensity conflict on European soil since the end of the Second World War.

A long and winding road

The European Union has given Vladimir Putin a geopolitical response by opening the door to accession negotiations that will also involve Moldova and, subject to conditions, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Georgia, also under pressure from Russia, has been granted candidate status. That very morning, in his annual exercise in self-celebration, Putin repeated the same certainties about a Europe that he sees as frozen for eternity, when in fact it never ceases to be in motion. Admittedly, Kyiv's road to membership promises to be long and tortuous. The EU will have to stand firm in the face of adversity, and demonstrate its creativity in the face of an unprecedented prospect of enlargement. But it is living up to expectations with the vote on December 14.

Not everything went perfectly in Brussels to get to this point. Once again, Europe was taken hostage by a country that joined the EU in 2004 and whose modest demographic weight is inversely proportional to its capacity to cause trouble: Hungary. To get Prime Minister Viktor Orban to choose once and for all between the EU and Russia, the European Commission has resigned itself to releasing €10 billion of the €30 billion that should have gone to Budapest but was withheld as part of sanctions over breaches of the rule of law. One German MEP called it "the biggest bribe" in EU history.

Orban, who absented himself from the room at the time of the vote on membership, did manage to block a €50 billion aid package for Kyiv, which will be discussed again in January. His obstructive nature will certainly force the EU to be inventive to get around him. It also highlights the need to reform the unanimity rule, which was designed for calm times, but which threatens to derail the European project every time there is a major crisis – and there are plenty of them now.