Some countries want Ukraine’s reforms to “stand test of time” for 10–20 years before EU accession – Deputy PM Kachka

This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

He explained that trust is an important issue in Ukraine’s accession to the EU, stemming from political discussions within the bloc about establishing the rule of law.

“For them, this is understood as the deepest form of integration within the EU itself. You can create a single market, but the European political community is formed precisely through the rule of law. And there are major debates; many parties within Germany are dissatisfied with this. We see the example of Hungary, we see discussions in Italy and Poland – this issue has still not been resolved,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

According to Kachka, countries such as Germany say: “Look, because this is extremely important for us, we need trust. So you will carry out your reforms, and we will need roughly 20 years for things to ‘settle’ so we can be sure everything works.”

“It’s not that we don’t want to accept you – we simply need trust,” the government official quoted his interlocutors as saying.

In response, Ukraine points to geopolitical circumstances, Russia’s aggression, the ongoing war, and the need for deeper European integration, Kachka said. He also recalled that when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, a special monitoring system – the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) – was introduced.

Under that mechanism, the European Commission verified whether Romania and Bulgaria were fulfilling membership conditions and could restrict certain rights if necessary.

“Ukraine does not have 20 years to wait for everything to ‘settle.’ Maybe I’m exaggerating about 20 years – even 10 years would be an eternity for us. That is why safeguard mechanisms and the CVM are a completely normal approach,” Kachka emphasized.

As Ukrinform previously reported, Marta Kos, European Commissioner for Enlargement, outlined the key challenges and tasks facing candidate countries on their path to joining the bloc and called for Ukraine’s full membership only after all reforms are implemented.

Photo: Taras Kachka / Facebook