Ukraine - future partner for 27 EU member states

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the EU candidate status is a new volume in the history of Ukraine’s European integration, which has only one option for completion - full EU membership.

“A candidate status is not just a new step. This is a new peak. This is not a new paragraph, a new page, a new section. This is a new volume in the history of Ukraine’s European integration, which we have started writing today. Today this book has no other options for completion, except for one thing. Ukraine will become an EU member in the future. From today, this has been fixed at the official level,” Ukrinform reports referring to Zelenskyy’s joint statement made with Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Ruslan Stefanchuk and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

He stressed that a candidate status is an obligatory stage that most countries went through to join the EU.

The president noted that this is a point of no return, a new status and a new image, rather than a new name or sign.

“Today it has been recognized that Ukraine is not a bridge, it is not a cushion between the West and the Russian Federation, it is not a buffer between Europe and Asia, it is not a sphere of influence, it is not a “gray” zone, it is not a transit territory, it is not a border between orcs and elves. Ukraine is a future equal partner for at least 27 EU member states,” President Zelenskyy added.

He reminded that an application for EU membership was signed in the Presidential Office on February 28, 2022, many people were sceptical, and Ukraine’s chances were considered illusory “amid fortifications and sandbags, during the pauses between air raid sirens”.