Ukraine may become EU member by 2030 – European Council President

Ukraine can become part of the European Union in 2030 if both parties do their homework, said Charles Michel, President of the European Council. It is about reforms on the part of Kyiv, as well as necessary internal changes in the EU.

“We in the EU must clearly understand what we want to achieve together, our priorities, and what we want to spend money on. And we need to speed up our decision-making processes,” Michel said.

Ukraine and other candidate countries must implement reforms, fight corruption, and fulfill the requirements of the law, the head of the European Council emphasized. At the same time, the European Union cannot waste any more time.

“The Western Balkans countries, for example, have been waiting 20 years to join the EU, and the influence of Russia and China is growing there. A prosperous and secure Ukraine is in our own interests. Their resistance to Russia has proven that Ukraine should be in the EU: Ukraine must be in the EU. And soon, not just one day. It would also prove that the EU is capable of geopolitical action,” Michel said.

The leaders of the European Union are preparing to give political consent to a possible positive decision of the European Commission regarding Ukraine’s readiness to start negotiations on accession in December this year, writes Politico, citing sources.

“The political push around that will just be too big for individual member states to resist. The working assumption is indeed that by December, the European Council will decide to open negotiations,” the source said.

Earlier, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv on October 2, said that the European Union will soon expand from Lisbon to Luhansk.