Dhe EU dampens the enthusiasm of the Ukrainian President Zelenskyj for quick accession to the state union. But Selenskyj already sees his country as a member of the EU. Below is an overview of what happened during the night and an outlook for the day.
After the summit with the EU in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is continuing to press for his country’s speedy accession to the European Union. “We are already speaking as members of the EU,” said Zelenskyy in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Friday evening. The status only has to be anchored in law. The EU Commission, headed by President Ursula von der Leyen, stressed in Kyiv that Ukraine still had a long way to go before EU membership.
On the other hand, Zelenskyj said that the EU representatives held out the prospect of accession negotiations at the summit in Kyiv on Friday. “There is an understanding that it is possible to start negotiations on Ukraine’s membership of the European Union this year,” said Zelenskyy. There were no such concrete statements from the EU side. Von der Leyen had praised Selenskyj’s determination and willingness to reform in Kyiv, but also emphasized that there was still a lot to do. There is no schedule.
Selenskyj has high hopes for rapid EU membership. “We are preparing Ukraine for greater integration into the EU’s internal market – that means more income for Ukrainian companies, more production and jobs in our country. And more income for our state and local households,” he said. “That’s what really makes Ukraine stronger.”
Ukraine will do everything to ensure that Russian aggression becomes a “suicide” for Moscow. The EU has now welcomed his plan for peace in Ukraine. The core of Zelenskyj’s plan is the withdrawal of Russian troops before negotiations begin. Russia, which controls nearly 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, rejects this suggestion as absurd.
Ukrainian ambassador in Germany is optimistic
After the summit, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, was also optimistic about joining the EU: “The message of this day is clear: Ukraine will become a member of the EU,” Makeiev told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. (Saturday). “It has never happened before that more than half the Commission traveled to a future accession country.” His country would “do everything to complete the accession process as quickly as possible,” said Makeiev. “Many EU member states have realized that in the case of Ukraine one has to give up political restraint and come to faster decisions.”
Barley dampens Ukraine’s hopes of joining the EU
Meanwhile, the Vice-President of the EU Parliament, Katarina Barley (SPD), has dampened expectations of Ukraine’s rapid accession to the EU. “The fact that Ukraine was given candidate status so quickly was a very unusual process,” Barley said on Friday evening on ARD’s “Tagesthemen”. The country must fulfill the same conditions as all other candidate countries. These included political, economic and legal criteria. “All three fields are far from being fulfilled.” It is not possible to prematurely include a country for special reasons. It is important “to be realistic about the Ukrainians”.