Ukraine’s EU accession talks postponed: experts name reasons
27 February 2024 13:41
EXCLUSIVE
Ukraine’s accession to the European Union is a strategically important issue for the country, and its discussion plays a key role in political and economic life. Recently, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that negotiations with official Kyiv on Ukraine’s accession to the EU have been postponed until the summer. This decision sparked numerous discussions and different opinions among politicians. Kommersant Ukrainian 
asked experts about the reasons for this postponement.
Volodymyr Fesenko – political scientist
Why were the negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU postponed until June?
They have not been postponed. I think this is primarily due to the elections. The formal explanation is that elections will be held, and the EC does not want to risk starting negotiations with a new composition. But in reality, they will start in autumn, not in June.
I do not exclude that there is internal resistance. Perhaps Orban is stirring things up again, because they can block internally.
Also, the current situation on the border is likely to be one of the political reasons for the delay in the negotiations. We need to understand that what is happening at the border is the first bell of the big problems we will have in the negotiations. We are a huge competitor, not only for European farmers, carriers, and other representatives of many industries, but also for representatives of various sectors of the economy in different EU countries.
So perhaps these situations have influenced the EC to some extent and they are preparing, let’s say, more carefully for the negotiations, because problems in the negotiation process can be quite serious.
Taras Zagorodnyi – political scientist
Why have the negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU been postponed until June?
We shouldn’t be expecting to join the EU quickly at all. It will take at least 10 years. We should be guided by this. The fact that negotiations are underway does not mean that Ukraine will be accepted into the EU. As the story with the Poles showed, our primitive economy that we have built does not fit into any EU. Agriculture in the EU is built on farmers, first and foremost, and we have latifundia, so it is already in conflict.
The EU is always about money and about keeping your own jobs. This is the first thing. Until we change our agriculture and economy, no one will take us into the EU.
The second question is whether the EU has money for Ukraine. This is also a big question. It is necessary to pay subsidies to Ukrainian agriculture, among other things, and to maintain infrastructure. That is, we will be working for almost half of the EU funds. This will be opposed by many EU countries that are recipients of these funds. By the way, Poland is also against it.
Therefore, it’s hard to say… The negotiations may end on paper tomorrow, conditionally. All the laws can be adopted in a year, and so on. But I don’t see any real readiness to accept Ukraine into the EU yet.
Volodymyr Tsybulko
Why have negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU been postponed until June?
Because Ukraine has homework to do. For example, the law on lobbying. I think there are four laws that need to be adopted. We need to deal with the oligarchs, as Zelenskyy and the government did before. It is the European law that needs to be implemented. Well, in fact, there is homework and the government must do it. And so far, it is in no hurry to do so.
What’s stopping them?
The joke in all this is that as soon as you acquire European standards in state governance, you have to go to the polls… That is, the change of power, respect for the rights of the minority. And they trample on the opposition, mock them. And this is a very clear marker. Let me remind you that even the loan agreement for this 50 billion clearly stipulates a requirement – a whole bunch of political requirements, including the multiparty parliament. In other words, they were told to form a coalition, but they don’t want to do it during the war.
When can we really join it?
The optimistic scenario is in the year 30. Most likely, if there really is this upheaval with the election of Trump, Europe will have to launch its own security policy, the one of a united Europe, and here Ukraine is simply indispensable. I mean some kind of joint armed forces and so on.
Author: Iryna Shevchenko
