JAKARTA - Ukraine's offer of accession to the European Union will not be finalized for another 15 to 20 years, France's European Affairs Minister said Sunday, dashing Kyiv's hopes of joining the bloc amid Russia's ongoing invasion.
"We have to be honest. If you say Ukraine will join the European Union in six months, or a year or two, you are lying," Clement Beaune told Radio J, quoted by Daily Sabah from AFP May 23.
"Maybe in 15 or 20 years, it will take a long time."
"I don't want to offer Ukraine any illusions or lies," he said, repeating French President Emmanuel Macron's offer to create a looser "European political community" that could help integrate Ukraine with the bloc more quickly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday denounced "such a compromise", insisting on immediately starting the process towards full EU membership. However, Beaune said Macron's proposal was not "an alternative to joining the European political community. It does not prevent future membership."
Under Macron's plan, "there may be free circulation in Europe, and it could benefit from the European budget for the reconstruction and revival of its country, society and economy," he said.
Some EU leaders share France's skepticism about Ukraine's swift acceptance of Ukraine's offer of membership, fearing it will take time to rebuild the war-torn economy, reduce corruption and adopt broad economic and legal reforms.
On Thursday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said "there are no shortcuts" to joining and the promotion process "is not a matter of months or years."
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
Most Popular Tags
#Prabowo Subianto #golkar #OTT KPK #Pilkada Dki #online gamblingPopular
