Selenskyj asked for urgent proceedings
EU rules out early accession of Ukraine
3/11/2022 5:21 am
The heads of government of the EU member states reject the request of the Ukrainian President Zelenskyj to admit his country to the EU as soon as possible. Instead, the EU Commission is now examining the corresponding application. It may be many years before a final decision is made.
The heads of state and government of the EU countries have put a significant damper on Ukraine’s hopes of rapid accession to the European Union. The statement from the EU summit in Versailles early this morning said: “Ukraine is part of our European family.” However, no concrete commitments were made to Kyiv with a view to acceding to the EU quickly, even after the eight-hour summit deliberations.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his colleagues merely promised Ukraine to further strengthen ties and deepen the partnership in order to support them on their European path. In addition, it was emphasized that the EU Commission had been quickly tasked with examining the Ukrainian application for EU membership.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy applied for EU membership last week in view of the Russian war against his country. However, joining the EU is a long and complicated process. Even if the EU Commission evaluates the application positively, the start of the admission negotiations could still be a long time coming, since all EU states have to agree.
“We don’t want a free ticket”
Ukraine, on the other hand, is also hoping for significantly more speed. “It’s not about getting membership tomorrow. We don’t want a free ticket. But we want that to happen in an urgent procedure, within a few years,” said the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, to the German Press Agency .
In 2017, the EU and Ukraine concluded an association agreement intended to deepen political and economic relations. In addition to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have also recently applied for membership. The EU summit pointed out that the EU Commission had also been asked to assess these two applications.