The war in Ukraine is a powerful reason to enlarge—and improve—the EU

The horror of two world wars prompted France, West Germany and others to link arms and create what is today the European Union. Seventy years on, war has returned to the continent. Out of the rubble in Ukraine, something akin to the sentiment that moved the EU’s founding fathers is stirring again. The talk now is of admitting as many as nine new members, including Ukraine. Joining the world’s most successful club of peaceful, prosperous democracies would set that war-ravaged country—and fellow aspirant members in the Western Balkans, Georgia and Moldova—on a new and promising path.