EU Commissioner Says Ukraine’s Accession to EU Could Take Years

Ukraine’s accession to the European Union will take several years, the European commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy said on Sunday.

In an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Oliver Varhelyi said Kiev needs to do “extensive work” to prepare for “participation in the EU internal market and in many other important policy areas”.

The commissioner predicted that “the entire preparations for accession will most likely take longer than a year or two”.

Varhelyi also stressed that the accession criteria for Ukraine are the same as for any other candidate country.

However, Olga Stefanishina, Ukraine’s European Integration Minister, told Welt, “Ukraine is not an ordinary candidate for accession.”