According to Euronews, this statement was made by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal during a business summit in Brussels. The meeting is dedicated to deepening economic ties, accelerating Ukraine’s recovery and EU integration.
“Accelerating Ukraine’s accession to the EU is not just a gesture of solidarity, it is an investment in the strength of Europe. We call on European leaders to accelerate Ukraine’s integration and shorten our path to full membership. We call on European businesses to invest in Ukraine as a country that will soon become a member of the EU,” said Denis Shmygal.
Many European leaders support this aspiration of Ukraine to join the European family as soon as possible. Poland and the Baltic States are particularly active in promoting this idea.
But there are also opponents of Ukraine’s “accelerated membership”. First of all, it is Hungary, which believes that it will completely destroy the European market and dry up the cohesion funds.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement does not agree with the position of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “He is wrong,” Marta Kos stated for Euronews. – Because in the future Ukraine will become one of the EU members. We are working on this. 26 EU member states support this vision. We can finalize all the selection processes already this year to be ready when the European Council can give an opinion on the opening of all the clusters. I am sure that this will be possible this year, but of course we have to work with Hungary as well.”
Moldova, as it is known, applied to join the EU in 2022 3 days after Ukraine, and on June 23 of the same year both countries were granted candidate status. Since then, Brussels has been considering the prospects of Moldova and Ukraine’s membership as a single “package” in many aspects.
So in case of granting “accelerated membership” to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova may become another “investment in the strength of Europe”.
