A number of countries of the European Union (EU) are dissatisfied with Ukraine because of the expectation of an early entry into the EU, writes Financial Times on Monday, February 13th.
“And while EU leaders have refrained from making public comments criticizing Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU, some governments have privately criticized Ukrainian politicians for expecting a speedy completion of the process, and EU leaders for encouraging these hopes.” , the article says.
In addition, the material says that the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Olha Stefanyshina urged to avoid “negative messages” in Europe about the country’s prospects for joining the EU.
“I urge European leaders and various officials to be very careful about, shall we say, negative messages,” the politician said.
In her opinion, nothing is holding back Ukraine to start the process of discussing the country’s accession to the European Union, and this will happen as early as 2023.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed an application for the country’s accession to the EU on February 28, 2022.
On February 3, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a summit in Kyiv, pointed out the absence of strict deadlines for Ukraine’s accession to the EU. She stressed that everything will depend on the level of preparation of the country for this step.
Earlier in the day, Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov questioned the possibility of an accelerated process of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. He noted that even the formulation of this issue causes controversy within the community.
At the same time, it became known that the EU considers Ukraine’s level of preparation for joining the union to be low or “early”. The EC report on assessing the country’s readiness for European integration indicates that the country has not reached the level necessary to start the process of Ukraine’s integration into the EU in any of the sectors of the economy.
On February 11, Zelensky acknowledged that a number of world leaders see Ukraine as part of the EU only after 10 years. Kyiv has already been predicted that another 30 or 50 years may pass before joining, the Ukrainian leader added.
The next day, ex-Deputy Chairman of the European Commission and former European Commissioner Günter Verheugen stressed that 15 years ago the West deliberately crossed a line unacceptable for the Russian Federation by offering Ukraine membership in NATO. He said that in this way Russia’s security interests were infringed. In addition, Verheugen pointed out that the EU promoted Ukraine’s accession to the European Union without discussing this issue with Moscow.
In April last year, Kyiv submitted to the European Union the completed second part of the questionnaire for obtaining the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union, and in June the European Council agreed on the status of candidates for Ukraine and Moldova. In December, it was reported that the Verkhovna Rada adopted all the bills that are necessary for the country to implement the recommendations of the European Commission to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for joining the European Union.
