Opening Remarks of the EU Ambassador to Ukraine on Ukraine’s EU Membership

Not IF but WHEN

"In 2014, Ukraine stood up on the Maidan against President Yanukovych’s attempts to hand the country over to Russia. A large part of the Ukrainian population called for joining the EU. Since then, you have come an incredibly long way under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

I have closely followed this journey and strongly supported it — first as Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), and for the past two years as the EU Ambassador in Kyiv. 

But let me pause and remember the early days of the full scale invasion - when we worked (like you) 24/7 to provide whatever we could in emergency assistance. As the first and biggest official donor with our projects and grantees on the ground from the first day after the full scale invasion. In the middle of us reprogramming 200 million of our assistance - on 28 February - we all were shocked by Ukraine taking a visionary step - applying for membership of the EU. It was hard for us to comprehend that living in bunkers and sleeping in metro stations, the leadership had the bandwidth to think of EU membership. But it made sense - EU entry meant HOPE for people. Hope amid Russian bullets, while the outskirts of Kyiv were under brutal occupation aof the Russian army. 

Ukraine is making history — not only its own, but also shaping a whole new chapter in the history of Europe and the European Union. 

And Ukraine is also writing a playbook on how to design and implement essential reforms while fighting an existential and righteous war against Russian aggression.

At the same time, one has to recognise that EU entry will not be the pill that will solve all ills. Now there is increasing realisation among policy makers and experts in Ukraine that this will not happen. Ukraine needs to go through the path of difficult reforms itself. With our help, but by itself. In the words of Sevgil Musaieva of Ukrainska Pravda, “EU integration was long a myth we idealized. The reality is more complex.” 

As this realisation sets in among the broader population, it is important to have a strategy on keeping the public support for EU accession. As the negotiations get difficult, as there are disappointments along the way, it is important working with the public. And this is particularly the case in Ukraine now, given the interests and capability by Russia to spread disinformation, false narratives and deploy other tools on its hybrid warfare toolkit to disrupt Ukraine’s EU accession. 

I feel privileged that I was able professionally to be on both sides of the Enlargement negotiations. First during the Slovak accession negotiations - the Class of 2004 - and later as Deputy Director General of DG NEAR in the European Commission. Given, Slovakia entered the EU under completely different circumstances. Slovakia was at peace. Ukraine is torn by war. And the geopolitical parameters were completely different. 

But there are three lessons from the time of our negotiations that I would like to share with you and which went into the design of the Ukraine2EU project: 

1: we wanted to provide pre-accession support in a more strategic way than we had it through demand driven Twinning. Much loved by MSs, but its usefulness was highly dependent on the quality of particular individuals. This is where this new Ukraine2EU project we are launching today comes in. Lithuania "is managing it, but It has strategic steer both from the EU and the Government of Ukraine.

The project combines the contributions and expertise of several EU Member States (Denmark, Lithuania, Sweden), including from their own EU Accession experience, and we are very happy that today Sweden is joining Denmark and Lithuania as a co-funder of the project.

2: EU accession is not just a government-led effort, but requires a whole-of-society approach. That’s why the Ukraine2EU project will support not only the Government of Ukraine, but also the Verkhovna Rada, as well as Ukrainian civil society, to ensure that all stakeholders are working together towards a common goal.

3: European Commission itself needs to be geared towards wanting EU expansion. It was not so in the past, but it is now. 

To meet the Ukrainian government’s own ambitious timeline for EU accession, it will be crucial to stay committed to the reform path and keep up both the political momentum and the support.

Slava Ukraïni!"