The subject creates some tension. This Thursday, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, considered that Ukraine was undergoing hurtful “second-class treatment” from “certain capitals” regarding its candidacy to join the European Union. “The strategic ambiguity over Ukraine’s European perspective practiced by some EU capitals over the past few years has failed and must end,” he tweeted.
Strategic ambiguity on Ukraine’s European perspective practiced by some EU capitals in the past years has failed and must end. It only emboldened Putin. We do not need surrogates for EU candidate status that show second-class treatment of Ukraine and hurt feelings of Ukrainians.— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 19, 2022
A few minutes earlier, during a speech to members of the Bundestag, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had affirmed that “the fact that there are no shortcuts on the road to membership of the EU (of Ukraine was) an imperative of fairness to the six Western Balkan countries” who have long wanted to join the European bloc.
“We can’t be kept apart”
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have recently applied for candidate status while six Western Balkan countries – Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia – aspire to join the EU, but the process of enlargement has been blocked for years. These six countries “have been undertaking intensive reforms for years”, judged the head of the German government. “Meeting our commitments to them is not just a matter of credibility,” he argued.
French President Emmanuel Macron “is right to point out that the accession process is not a matter of a few months or a few years”, he added. In his speech on the occasion of Europe Day, May 9, the French head of state stressed that Ukraine, invaded by Russia, was already “a heartfelt member of our union”. But the process of joining the EU, to which kyiv aspires, “would take several years, in fact several decades”, he had estimated, while proposing, in parallel, the creation of a “new European organization”.
Read also Ukraine’s accession to the EU: Brussels is looking for the right formula
A point of view that surprised kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recalling in an exchange with French students last Wednesday that “we cannot be kept at a distance”. “It’s like a table where the whole family is gathered, and we invited you, but we didn’t put you in a chair. I think it’s unfair,” he said. “It is very important for us to reserve this place (in the EU) for Ukraine,” added Dmytro Kouleba the next day.
This Wednesday, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, for his part, defended the creation of a “European geopolitical community” to prepare candidate countries for integration. Thus taking up the proposal defended by Emmanuel Macron with a new name.
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