German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged emphatic backing for Ukraine and other hopefuls to join the European Union, underlining however that enlarging the bloc to “30 or 36” would require reforms. Scholz said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine requires a “European answer to this watershed”. The bloc needs to reduce its “one-sided dependencies”, be it on the economic, energy or defense fronts, he urged, calling for a “geopolitical, sovereign and enlarged EU”.