EU Ambassador advises Ukraine to choose strategy of patient persistence and negotiation
EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova said that Ukraine needs to accept that EU enlargement takes place only with the consent of all member states, and each country can postpone or block certain decisions.
She said this during a blitz interview with RBC-Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.
"We need to accept the fact that EU enlargement is subject to unanimity, any individual member state has the ability to postpone, to block certain steps. And I think other current candidate countries could tell you about this. You know, Ukraine is not the first, and probably not the last, country where this will happen. And to cope with this, you need to be patient and persistent," Mathernova said.
According to her, in the case of Ukraine, there are bilateral problems with one country, and the best advice in this case is to "engage, talk, discuss and look for solutions to overcome potential differences." Because the EU enlargement process is organized in such a way that it has to be unanimously agreed upon at every stage, "there is no magic formula for resolving issues other than discussions, negotiations, outreach, diplomacy, etc."
As reported, the First Intergovernmental Conference in Luxembourg on June 25 launched negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.