Ireland supports Ukraine’s fast-tracked accession to EU – Irish FM

Ireland declared its support for Ukraine's fast-tracked entry into the European Union.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ireland, Simon Coveney, stated this, EP reports with reference to Bild.

"What motivates many Ukrainians is the dream of a different future. The kind of future we have today in the EU, in terms of peace, stability, prosperity, democracy, and all that follows," Coveney said.

"But first of all, the country, which is now literally fighting for its survival against a military superpower, should be able to hope for full membership in the EU, and not for some kind of partial membership or a neighborhood agreement," the minister added.

According to the minister, in addition to Ukraine, other countries, such as the Balkan states or Moldova and Georgia, should also benefit from the expansion.

"We delayed accepting some Balkan countries for too long," the minister said.

Coveney emphasized that there should be mandatory standards that candidate countries must meet. "But we also have to celebrate progress when it happens," he said.

We will remind you that the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, believes that preparing Ukraine for the start of negotiations on joining the European Union may take more than a year or two.

Earlier, Rubryka reported that Ukraine has ambitious plans to fulfill all seven conditions put forward by the European Commission when granting candidate status to the country and to proceed to negotiations on EU membership by the end of this year.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this at the Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kyiv.

"We will move at a very fast pace. We have analyzed how other countries paved this way. It took them five, seven, or eight years. We have the ambition to complete this journey in a maximum of two years and achieve our goal of being a full-fledged member of the European Union," Shmyhal said.

As Rubryka reported, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, said that the realistic time for opening negotiations on EU membership was 2023.

"The year 2023 looks absolutely realistic. The EU did not start working with us on June 23. We prepared almost 6,000 answers to the questionnaire and did it together with the EU. All the reforms we made together to implement the Association Agreement. That is, the understanding of Ukraine is very great. Therefore, certain procedures, such as screening, evaluation of markets, and legislation, are not something that will take years but are already work that needs to be formalized. Therefore, it is realistic to proceed to negotiations after all evaluations already in 2023," Stefanishyna said.