Signs the EU has changed its perspective on adding new members since Russia invaded Ukraine

Enlargement is no longer framed as a primarily economic objective but an urgent political act of justice and solidarity and a necessary step to restore the security of the EU and Europe 

In her state of the union speech on Wednesday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen gave her strongest signal yet of the intention to add Ukraine and other nations as member states. Picture: AP /Jean-Francois Badias

In her annual address on the state of the European Union, commission president Ursula von der Leyen has given her strongest signal yet of the intention to add Ukraine and other nations as member states. 

Her speech was the latest sign that Brussels is thinking completely differently about EU enlargement since the start of the war in Ukraine.