Polish envoy unveils Ukraine's steps to join EU, NATO

Polish ambassador to Ukraine Bartosz Cichocki has said that the procedure for joining the EU is quite understandable, and Ukraine should demonstrate progress.

“There is also no legal reason for Ukraine to fail to become a NATO member,” the ambassador said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

“As for the EU, the situation is clear. Along with the provision of Ukraine with the status of a candidate, there are seven spheres in which we expect progress. As far as I understand, the Ukrainian team is sure that the results of this work will be sent to the EU in December,” he said.

The ambassador said that then the European Commission should evaluate this progress in the second half of next year and depending on this assessment, conversations about Ukraine’s joining EU may start.

“There is no clear schedule. There are countries that have been holding these negotiations for more than 30 years. There are those which hold negotiations for 10 years, and there is a little progress. That is, it will depend on your reforms, but also on the situation. No one tells you that this is a purely technical procedure,” he added.

Cichocki noted that Poland “is greatly interested because Ukraine as a full-fledged member of NATO would be very good for the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic, rather than because of its pro-Ukrainian position”.

“However, this is not a political, philosophical theme. The quality of this membership is very important for Ukraine to be a qualitative NATO member,” the ambassador said.

He added that “there are topics that we already repeat as the mantra - this is democratic control over the armed forces, the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine, etc. We talked about this before aggression and clearly explained what should be done, for example, weapons purchase system”.

“Nevertheless: there is no such point in the Washington Treaty that it is impossible to speak about joining NATO during the war. NATO door should be open, there is no legal reason that Ukraine could not become a NATO member,” the ambassador said.

Ukrainians’ support for joining NATO increased to 83 per cent in October 2022 – a maximum level during observations.