Shmyhal hopes EU agricultural screening to give Ukraine arguments in talks with Poland
Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, hopes Ukraine will be able to obtain a negotiating framework for joining the European Union as early as this March.
He said this during a press conference reporting on the government's four years of work, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"Today, we are at the stage of receiving the appropriate negotiating framework from the European Commission. I hope we will see it in March. We are also working on launching negotiations with the European Commission and the European Union on Ukraine's accession. Thirty-five chapters," Shmyhal said.
According to him, the negotiations will provide for the appropriate screening.
"I believe some chapters will be quite difficult, but first we asked the European Commission, and we put forward a proposal on the border with Poland – to launch screening of the agricultural sector. This screening will consist of three clusters. We spoke about it with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during his visit to Kyiv," the prime minister noted.
He hopes this will change the approach from the European Commission, and agricultural screening will demonstrate that Ukraine exports products of appropriate quality. "And this will give us solid ground for having absolutely solid numbers and statistics in discussions with our neighbors, including with Poland," Shmyhal added.
Shmyhal has assured that Ukraine will fulfill all its obligations on the way to the EU within two years before the EU is to make the political decision.
"As for our path to the EU, we are moving very quickly at all stages. We have already screened our legislation and this reduces the time of negotiation procedures. I am sure we will go through all negotiation procedures very quickly. If for some countries it took years and decades, we can go through all the other stages very quickly – within up to 2 years. That is, we are ready to do our homework very quickly. After that, it will only be about a political decision of the European Union," Shmyhal noted.
He expressed hope the European Union would be able to make a political decision immediately after Ukraine fulfilled its obligations.
"I do not believe the European Union will await any formalities once Ukraine has done its homework. We will do it, there is no doubt. We have demonstrated more than once that we deliver on all our obligations. I’d like to believe that Ukraine will become a member of the EU immediately after our victory, and we will do our homework in two years," said the prime minister.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, on December 14, 2023, the leaders of the EU member states decided to launch accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova.
Shmyhal earlier stated that Ukraine should be ready to join the European Union within two years.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on February 16 that already in the first half of this year, the government will form a Ukrainian team for EU accession talks.