Visiting Ukraine: President of the EU Council tempers hopes for accession negotiations

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Some EU member states have made it clear that they want to think carefully before deciding on the next step in the accession process, the Belgian explained to journalists on the train entering Kiev on Tuesday. They are working hard to reach a united position at the EU summit in December. However, the political difficulties should not be underestimated – also because difficult budget decisions have to be taken at the same time.

Michel did not say which EU countries could block the start of accession negotiations for the country, which has been defending itself against Russia’s war of aggression since February 2022. He simply pointed out in general that there was another difficult group besides the fundamentally reserved states. It believes that the Western Balkan countries should currently be given priority in the accession process, as they were promised access to the EU more than twenty years ago. These countries are not against new steps for Ukraine, but want a guarantee that progress will also be made for countries in the Western Balkans, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Michel explains.

It is currently known that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has firmly rejected the start of accession negotiations with Kiev as recommended by the European Commission. “Ukraine is in no way able to negotiate its accession ambitions,” Orbán said a week and a half ago. Austria and Slovenia are mainly seen as countries pushing for progress in the EU accession process with the Balkan states.

Michel had held informal talks with many EU heads of state and government in recent days and now wanted to talk to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the situation during his visit to Kiev. The Belgian recently caused a stir when he said that he believes Ukraine could become part of the EU as early as 2030 if the country implements the necessary reforms, fights corruption and meets legal requirements. At the same time, he believes, internal EU reforms must also take place – for example to speed up decision-making processes.

Ukraine is currently awaiting a decision on starting accession negotiations. The European Commission recommended this step in principle two weeks ago, but EU governments have yet to agree to it. A decision is expected to be taken on December 14 and 15 at the last regular summit of EU heads of state and government of the year.

One obstacle could be reform requirements that Ukraine has not yet fully met. The European Commission believes that these should only be a condition for setting up the first round of negotiations, but no longer for the fundamental decision. The reforms that have not yet been completed concern the fight against corruption, the protection of minorities and the influence of oligarchs in the country. The European Commission expects that they can be implemented in March next year.

With his visit to Ukraine on Tuesday, Michel also wanted to mark the anniversary of the pro-Western demonstrations called Euromaidan, which called for the signing of a rapprochement agreement with the EU. The three-month, sometimes violent, ongoing protests in the Ukrainian capital Kiev started exactly ten years ago and led to the overthrow of then Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych.

As a result, Russia occupied the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and annexed it a short time later. Moscow then supported eastern Ukrainian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions for years and launched the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which continues to this day.

(SDA)

Source: Blick