Ukraine’s EU Accession by 2030 ‘Not Unrealistic’ – EU Ambassador to Ukraine

Katarina Mathernova, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, praised Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling the requirements for joining the bloc and said that European Council President Charles Michel’s goal of Ukraine joining by 2030 was “not unrealistic.”

In an interview with EuroPravda, Mathernova noted Ukraine’s quick progress compared to other EU candidates, and that current talks were done “in a very compressed time schedule when it comes to European processes.”

“I have already said in an interview before and I will repeat myself: I believe that the goal set by President Michel – Ukraine’s accession to the EU by the end of this decade – is not unrealistic,” she said.

However, she said Ukraine’s accession still requires approval from all member states in addition to the technical aspects that require attention.

“But accession to the EU – and this must be realized – is not only a technical process of membership negotiations, which in itself takes time. And it is also a political ratification in all member states, because the accession of a new member means a change in the EU treaty.

“That is why it must be ratified in the format required by each of the EU countries. And this always takes a certain amount of time. Yes, during the 2004 enlargement, it took about a year and a half,” she added.

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In June, the EU formally launched accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova after granting both nations candidate status two years earlier.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told Kyiv Post in an exclusive interview in June that “the European Parliament fully supports the European aspirations of the Ukrainian people.”

She added that joining the EU is a “merit-based process,” where “each country has its own trajectory of negotiations where the rights and obligations that constitute the body of EU law must be adopted, and necessary reforms implemented” before praising Kyiv’s efforts in “adopting a set of difficult reforms when it was granted EU candidate status.”