PARIS, May 22. /TASS/. Ukraine’s accession to the European Union may take decades, taking into account the requirements candidate nations are to comply with, Minister Delegate to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Clement Beaune said on Sunday.
"We must be honest to them and to our citizens. If we say that Ukraine will join the European Union in six months, in a year or two, it will not be the truth because the European Union lays certain requirement [to candidates]. It may happen in 15 or 20 years. It is a long procedure," he said in an interview with Radio G!
According to Beaune, it would be right to offer certain privileges to Ukraine and other countries seeking closer relations with the EU, in particular Moldova and Georgia. For these ends, in his words, it would be expedient to establish a European pollical community, as French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested. Such community would give the Ukrainians the right of free movement in Europe, would give them access to some European funds to restore their country and revive its economy, he said, adding that it is political project supplementing the European Union, which is meant for the countries seeking closer ties with the EU.
The French president said earlier that Ukraine could be granted a candidate status in an accelerated procedure but its subsequent accession to the European Union would take years or even decades. Speaking at a conference on Europe’s future, he came out with an initiative to set up a new organization, a European political community, which would include Ukraine and several other countries and which will be a kind of a supplement to the European Union.
His idea however was met with criticism by some European politicians. Thus, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda slammed the Paris’ initiative as an indication of the lack of political will concerning the matter of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.