Ukraine

I'll leave this link here about the accession talks with Turkey as a negative example. Official negotiations about full membership were started in 2005, and nowadays we are just getting further away from it.

I'd say it really is what you make out of it. But even the process can be beneficial. I don't think there is a set timeframe and it seems that with Ukraine and Moldova there are now 9 candidates.

As for countries in conflict Cyprus was able to join, so it doesn't necessarily need to be a deal breaker it seems. Although a country in active war would be a different thing I assume. Considering the EU has a defense clause that is arguably worded stronger than NATOs.

I would note that not only Ukraine and Moldova have things to work on, but also the EU. Until we get rid of the veto adding new countries makes things even more difficult. We just have to look at Hungary to see how it makes everything difficult.

Moldova has had a Russian backed separatist region called Transnistria since 1990. Moldova has had a hard time, they do not have huge resources they can use, and their military is not well- equipped or funded.

During the Soviet era the country was producing huge amounts of agricultural products. After dissolution, Moldova still relied heavily on export to Russia. It was mostly in their best interest to keep their heads down and carry on, as they do not have the means to fight a serious conflict.

They've also had massive brain drain. Large volumes of young people have been leaving the country for decades. Many young people with Romanian heritage applied to become Romanian-EU citizens when Romania joined the EU.

They have slowly been pivoting towards a pro-EU policy. Whenever they make an obvious plan to head more towards becoming European, Russia will often apply some kind of sanctions. It's been a common tactic over the last few decades for shipments of wine, cognac or other Moldovan products to be seized and 'destroyed' by Russian customs officials in retaliation for Pro-EU policy shifts by Moldova.

When the Preisdent of Belarus, Lukashenko, leaked Russia's Ukrainian invasion plans, Moldova was shown as being a point of troop movement. So Russias invasion plan definitely originally included Moldovan territory as well.

Finland holds the record, submitted their application in March 1992 and became member 1st of January 1995. Norway would've been even faster but their referendum failed.

If I'm not mistaken then Turkey holds the record for taking the longest, they were given official candidate status in 1999 and still haven't joined. Aren't anywhere close to joining because they're not implementing the necessary legal changes etc.

Finland didn't have much to do they were basically ready before they applied, while Ukraine is currently working through the accession chapters at breakneck speed, not wasting a single parliament session. Early 2022 they were so fast the EU Commission couldn't keep up with double-checking. Still, there's a lot to do.

I was under the impression a country could not join if they are in a conflict? Am I wrong here, is Moldova in a conflict now.

I'm not aware of any legal barriers to that, I think it's a political question. Russia being advised that if it's not out of Ukraine by a certain date the last thing her soldiers will see is Eurofighters tearing through the sky would presumably make Putin shit bricks.

Moldova very much is in a conflict, Russia has been propping up a puppet regime in Transistria since the early 90s.

It all depends on how close the country already is to meeting the requirements for EU membership. The EU basically just started the process of assessing Ukraine and Moldova on these. If a candidate meets some requirement, great, otherwise, both sides discuss which reforms might be necessary. If I had to make a guess, I would expect this process to take decades, at least for Ukraine.

Additionally, accession still requires approval by all member states. Even if Ukraine were to meet all requirements, any existing member could block it from joining.