Prime Minister: Ukraine wants to join EU within two years

Denys Shmyhal, Ukrainian Prime Minister

© APA | Denys Shmyhal, Ukrainian Prime Minister

# 30 January 2023 10:49 (UTC +04:00)

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has a tight two-year timetable for securing EU membership that is bound to dominate discussions at this week’s historic EU-Ukraine summit, the first to take place on Ukrainian soil, Denys Shmyhal told POLITICO, APA reports.

“We have a very ambitious plan to join the European Union within the next two years,” he stressed. “So we expect that this year, in 2023, we can already have this pre-entry stage of negotiations,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last year it could be “decades” before Ukraine joins. Even EU leaders, who backed granting Ukraine candidate status at their summit last June, privately admit that the prospect of the country actually joining is quite some years away. After all, candidate countries like Serbia, Türkiye, and Montenegro have been waiting for many years, since 1999.

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