Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said that Ukraine should not be offered to join the European Union. He made this statement at the fourteenth European media summit in Lech am Ar, European Pravda reports.
In addition, the minister thinks that Ukraine should not receive a candidate status in June, as President Zelenskyy had hoped. According to him, the countries of the Western Balkans have been walking the path to the status of an EU candidate for much longer.
The Austrian Heute also quotes Schallenberg saying that Ukraine should not, in principle, become a member of the EU, even in the future. He called for a "different path" for Ukraine that does not involve EU membership.
According to the Minister, there should also be other models than Ukraine's accession to the EU, like joining the EU's Single Economic Zone or simply maintaining the current level of the Association Agreement. Schallenberg called for greater flexibility in finding mechanisms for rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU.
However, he unequivocally supported the further deepening of the EU's relations with Ukraine. "We export our western way of life," he explained.
On April 18, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy handed over to the head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, a completed questionnaire to obtain Ukraine's EU candidate status.