Ukraine can’t become EU member while russian troops are on its territory – EC VP

Ukraine will not be able to become a member of the European Union as long as there are russian troops on its territory.

Vice President of the European Commission (EC) Frans Timmermans stated this in an interview with DW.

He was asked whether Ukraine could become a member of the European Union if russian troops were stationed in that country.

"No, it's impossible. But the whole idea is for Ukraine to come out of this conflict as a winner, sovereign, independent, and free, and have the opportunity to make this choice on its own.

And I think that Ukraine is fighting for this to happen. The European Union should support Ukraine in achieving this goal," Timmermans replied.

As the European Commission noted, when Ukraine received the official status of a candidate for European Union membership, Ukraine had to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria to be accepted into the EU. These are the conditions for joining the EU, which were adopted back in 1993.

That includes:

• the presence of stable state institutions,
• a current market economy,
• the ability to effectively fulfill the obligations of the EU member.

In addition, the European Commission formulated seven conditions that Kyiv must fulfill on the way to membership in the European Union.

These are judicial reforms, the fight against corruption, de-oligarchization, and national minorities policy.

It should be noted that opening accession negotiations (after which Ukraine will need to adapt the legislation to the European one according to 35 negotiating chapters, "closing" them one by one) is technically impossible before the fall of 2023.

As Rubryka reported, most Ukrainians believe that Ukraine can become a member of the European Union in the coming years.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanyshina, Ukraine, together with the EU, will begin to evaluate Ukraine's steps on the way to the European Union at the beginning of March and that Ukraine's accession to the European Union is in no way related to the issue of completion war against russian aggression or de-occupation of Ukrainian territories.

The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, stated that the Ukrainian parliament has fully implemented all the recommendations of the European Commission, which are necessary for the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.