Talks on Ukraine’s accession to the EU were absolutely inappropriate and could lead to the collapse of the EU, Bundestag MP Sahra Wagenknecht stated.
A country characterised by rampant corruption and the absence of the rule of law. A country in which a man is honoured as a national hero whose militias participated in the Holocaust. Can it become part of the EU? I am convinced that this union would destroy the EU itself.
Wagenknecht also expressed concern that the EU accession talks were linked to international investors who “are already buying up everything in Ukraine with a gold rush mentality.” Earlier, the leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice (BSW), established in January this year, stated that Ukraine did not fulfil the criteria needed to join the bloc.
We at the BSW reject [the possibility of] Ukraine’s accession [to the EU] because we believe that the conditions [for this] are not fulfilled. The elementary economic prerequisites for this accession are completely missing. Corruption is rampant in the country and the rule of law is underdeveloped.
The MP noted that Kyiv’s European allies did little to ensure that the end of the Ukrainian conflict would come closer. As long as peace was not achieved in Ukraine, all the prospects of Ukraine joining the EU were extremely unlikely, she concluded.
On 25 June, Ukraine started a long process of negotiations on its accession to the EU. The country must fulfil all the EU requirements to fully adapt its legislation to the European one.
According to European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, the EU is unlikely to accept any new countries into its membership during the next European Commission, i.e. until the end of 2029.
Negotiations to welcome a country into the EU are not time-limited and do not imply any specific deadline for accession. The record holder in terms of the duration of accession talks is Turkey. It has been negotiating for 19 years without any prospect of completion.
