Kyiv may join the EU before the conflict with Moscow is resolved, the head of the committee for cooperation with Ukraine in the European Parliament, Pekka Toveri, told Izvestia. Earlier, the European Commission announced plans to resume negotiations on this in June. However, the EU is split on the Ukrainian issue, and individual countries are making their own demands on Kyiv. Experts believe that Brussels will not be able to accept him into the EU in the near future due to fears of a conflict with Russia. The expansion of the union is stalling and becoming a toxic topic, and the last successful accession took place more than 10 years ago.
The European Union is discussing the scenario of Kyiv joining the union before the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, the head of the Ukraine–EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in the European Parliament (EP) Pekka Tovery told Izvestia.
"I personally believe, and I am sure that there is great support for this idea, that we should accept Ukraine into the EU, even if there is still an open conflict between Ukraine and Russia. If we don't do this, it will become an open invitation for the Russian Federation to continue the conflict as a way to stop Ukraine's integration with the West," the politician said.
According to him, in this way Brussels will send "a clear signal to Russia that sooner or later Ukraine will join the EU and Russia has no right to vote in this matter." At the same time, he believes that the EU countries will not be drawn into an open conflict with Moscow, since some of them joined the union, having a territorial dispute with Russia. In particular, Estonia claims the Pechora district of the Pskov region, Moscow considers such claims unacceptable.
In 2022, Ukraine received the status of a candidate for EU membership. According to the latest report of the European Commission, Kyiv has "made progress in implementing key reforms" and fulfilled the conditions necessary to launch negotiations on three out of six clusters. In March, the Ukrainian authorities received a full package of conditions necessary for joining the EU. Vladimir Zelensky insists on the country's admission to the union in 2027.
