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Barroso: EU not ready to launch procedure of Ukraine’s accession to EU

© EPA/PATRICK SEEGER

BRUSSELS, March 27 /ITAR-TASS/. EU countries are not ready to launch the procedure of Ukraine’s accession to the EU, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday.

EU members believe that not only Ukraine is unready for membership but the EU is unready to integrate the country into its ranks at the current stage, too, and that is why an Association Agreement was offered to the Ukrainian authorities, Barroso said in the course of an expert discussion in Brussels.

He indicated however that the door for membership was not closed and that Ukraine might use the opportunity in the future. However, to do this Ukraine would need reforms, a struggle with corruption and a bigger degree of openness of the authorities to society.

Barroso indicated that the start of talks on EU expansion through absorption of a new country required unanimity of all the EU member-states, and they never had unanimity as regards Ukraine.

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