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Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, said today, Sunday, November 6, that Ukraine’s accession to the European Union could take years, according to German news outlet Welt am Sonntag.
The EU official claimed that all preparations for accession will most likely take more than a year or two and that serious preparations will be required. While noting Ukraine’s striving for rapid reforms, Varhelyi called such a desire positive, but at the same time added that not all reforms can be carried out quickly.
Given the large amount of work required to prepare for participation in the EU internal market and many other important policy areas, preparations for accession are likely to take more than a year or two,” he said.
At the same time, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olha Stefanishyna told Welt that Ukraine had begun the integration process even before it acquired the status of a candidate country. She noted that “a large number of reforms have already been carried out under the supervision of the EU”, which allows accelerating the accession process and not using the “standard procedure”.
Stefanyshina also refers to the opinion of the Baltic States and other close allies of Ukraine, which support the accelerated accession of Ukraine to the EU.
“We are determined to complete EU accession by the end of 2024,” the Ukrainian politician said.
Varhei, in turn, insists that the same criteria should be applied to Ukraine as to other candidates.
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission earlier promised to help Ukraine with ‘very soft loans’. She announced that next week she would present a plan of assistance to Ukraine for 2023 amounting to a total of €18 billion.
