Ukraine should be EU member - Scholz

Germany supports Ukraine's full membership of the EU in the future, and the country should be rebuilt, taking into account this perspective.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this in his speech at the opening of the 5th German-Ukrainian Business Forum in Berlin on Monday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

He recalled that on June 23, the heads of state and government of the EU member states granted Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership.

"In this way, we also bear responsibility for what everyone understood a long time ago after the Maidan: Ukraine is part of the European family. I am speaking very seriously and I understand all the consequences of this - we want Ukraine to become part of the European Union," Scholz said.

He added that this decision is a signal to private investors: whoever invests in the reconstruction of Ukraine today will invest in a country that will be part of the EU and part of the common European market.

According to Scholz, this also affects the very process of rebuilding Ukraine, which must be carried out keeping in mind that Ukraine will one day become a full member of the EU.

"This means that both in logistics and in transport, it is necessary to act in such a way as to 'tie' Ukraine to the internal European market right away. This means that export routes should be opened for Ukrainian products, for Ukrainian companies. At the same time, we need to remember the environment and ecological agriculture," Scholz said.

He also added that it is necessary not only to rebuild the destroyed energy sector of Ukraine, although it is now a priority, but also to increase efficiency, develop the export of electricity from Ukraine to the EU and strengthen the Ukrainian energy system.

"There's sun and wind in Ukraine - these are very good prerequisites for it to be not just a transit country, but an exporter of renewable energy. There is already the first agreement between Ukrainian and German enterprises, and we know that there is great potential here," he said.

Photo: dpa