Ukraine’s accession to the European Union “will probably take 15 or 20 years,” the French delegate minister for European affairs said on Sunday, 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 European Union in 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, we are lying. Is not true. It is probably in 10 or 20 years,” said Clément Beaune during an interview on radio J.
“In the meantime we owe the Ukrainians a political project that they can enter,” he continued.
Macron proposed in early May to create a “European political community” as a “complement” to the accession process.
But Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky criticized the proposal on Saturday and insisted on the immediate start of the process towards full accession to the European Union.
Beaune stressed on Sunday that Macron’s proposal was not “an alternative to joining the European political community. It doesn’t prevent adhesion later on.”
Under Macron’s plan, “there could be free movement in Europe, and you could benefit from the European budget for the reconstruction and revival of your country, your society and your economy,” he said.
The question of the enlargement of the European Union to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova generates controversy and divisions within the bloc. Germany and France have already warned against rapid accession, as Kyiv wants.
On May 9, Macron explained that Ukraine would need “decades” to enter the EU and suggested that in the meantime it be part of this “European political community”, which could also include the United Kingdom, which left the EU in 2020.
The 27 heads of state and government of the block must debate this project during the European summit at the end of June 2022.
