MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. In all likelihood, Ukraine will receive the status of a candidate member of the European Union, but it will only be a polite refusal to grant full membership for decades to come, Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries Vladimir Zharikhin told TASS on Friday.
"Ukraine will be granted the status of an EU candidate member, but this will mean nothing. It will not be a sign that full membership will eventually follow, but serve as the politest refusal to grant membership for decades to come," he said.
As an example, Zharikhin cited the experience of Turkey, which has had the status of a candidate since 1999, but has not become a member of the EU to this day. Also, the expert drew attention to the fact that the EU warned Kiev it should meet certain admission criteria.
"Turkey seems to have been doing its utmost in this sense, but to no avail. The same awaits Ukraine. The list of conditions and requirements will continue to grow," Zharikhin believes.
The analyst acknowledged that at the beginning of Russia’s special military operation, there was hope that Ukraine might be admitted to the EU. "When support for Ukraine surged up, this could have happened, but the European leaders, though their qualification is not always impeccable, this time preferred not to succumb to the temptation and, for political reasons, decided against letting Ukraine into the EU. Nor will they agree to do so over the next ten years," he concluded.
However unrealistic Ukraine's EU membership ambitions, the expert said, there will still be enough of those "eager to be deceived."
"In 2004, many sincerely believed that Ukraine would become a member of the EU. Now, 18 years on, nothing has changed," Zharikhin stressed. "This will not satisfy Ukraine. Some representatives of the authorities are already being very rude towards the leaders of Europe - Germany and France. But this is all that they can do," he added.
The EU summit at the end of June will consider the possibility of granting Ukraine the status of an EU candidate. Within the tightest deadlines Ukraine filled in the questionnaire that Brussels sends to all applicants for the candidate’s status. Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk claims that 91% of the country's population support EU membership. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kiev would not reconcile itself with a refusal to grant it the status of a candidate. Meanwhile, Russia's permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, has noted that all people in their right mind in Ukraine see quite clearly that hopes for early admission to the EU are unrealistic.