Friday, March 29

Ukraine's accession to the EU will take 15-20 years, according to France

Clément Beaune
Clément Beaune

Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP / Getty Images

Deutsche Welle

Ukraine’s accession to the EU “will probably take 15 or 20 years”, he said this Sunday (22.05.2022) the French Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, who believes that kyiv can enter the European political community proposed by President Emmanuel Macron.

“You have to be honest. (…) If we say that Ukraine will enter the EU in 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, we are lying. Is not true. It is probably in 10 or 20 years”, assured Beaune during an interview on radio J.

“Meanwhile we owe the Ukrainians (…) a political project in which they can enter”, he continued.

Macron proposed in early May to create a “European political community” as a “complement” to the accession process.

But the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, criticized the proposal on Saturday and insisted on the immediate start of the process towards full accession to the EU, which will be debated by the 27 heads of state during the European summit at the end of June.

On the sidelines, Beaune stressed that Macron’s proposal was not “an alternative to joining the European political community. It does not prevent accession later”.

Under Macron’s plan, “there could be free movement in Europe, and it could benefit from the European budget for the reconstruction and reactivation of their country, their society and their economy”, he said.