There is no talk of separating EU accession negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova – Poroshenko after meeting with EC President
Ukrainian MP and leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko has discussed with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen the acceleration of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, as well as common "red lines" in the negotiation process to end the war, the party's website reported.
"I received a clear signal: there is no question of a scenario of separating the negotiation processes on Ukraine's accession to the EU for Ukraine and Moldova. We agreed that it is important to take into account the economic difficulties for Ukrainian exporters when considering the issue of trade privileges for Ukraine," Poroshenko said.
According to him, he also discussed with the European Commission President the development of a common position on ending the war and establishing a just and lasting peace.
"I emphasized that it is necessary to clearly fix our common "red lines", in particular on non-recognition of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and other temporarily occupied territories of our state," Poroshenko added.
As reported, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos stated that the EU is considering the possibility of continuing the accession process of Moldova, separating it from Ukraine, against the background of Hungary's resistance to negotiations with Kyiv.
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration - Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna said that Ukraine and Hungary have agreed to hold regular consultations from May 12 to remove all concerns of the Hungarian side and unblock the negotiation process on Ukraine's accession to the European Union. Later, she called Marta Kos's statement regarding the possibility of separating Moldova and Ukraine in the negotiation process on EU membership unconstructive.
European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier noted that "when it comes to the separation of Ukraine and Moldova on the path to accession, the advancement of this process in the Council depends solely on the member states."
"For our part, we remain fully committed to providing the necessary technical, financial and political support to both Moldova and Ukraine to effectively pursue their reforms," he added.
The spokesman recalled that, according to the European Commission's assessment of EU accession, "both Ukraine and Moldova have made steady progress in reforms... but ultimately, the final decision must be taken by the member states. According to Mercier, if the member states wish to do so, they will put the issue up for discussion for further decision-making.
