Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has stressed that the country’s membership in the European Union and in NATO remain Ukraine’s strategic goal, but this is not viable in 2018.
“Membership in the European Union, as well as joining NATO, certainly remain our strategic goal. Since this prospect is clearly not for 2018, and it is not up to us, as the Scripture says, to know the times and dates, I will only say that I firmly believe this will happen,” the president said in the column in a special issue of the ‘Novoye Vremia’ (New Times) and ‘The Economist World’ published on Saturday.
In addition, Poroshenko noted, the Association Agreement with the EU is “a roadmap for further fundamental changes that will bring Ukraine closer to the Copenhagen criteria for membership in the most prestigious union in the world.”
“During the Eastern Partnership Summit, I presented the outlines for further intermediate steps: an association with the Schengen zone, accession to the EU Customs Union, the EU Energy Union and the Single Digital Market. The sectoral integration will actually turn the country’s eastern borders into the EU borders before we de jure join the EU,” the president said.
