„Ukraine’s path to join the European Union will be very long because it depends not only on Ukraine” – dr Małgorzata Bonikowska in TVN24 [03.02.2023]
While commenting on the EU-Ukraine summit, which took place on 3.02.2023 in Kyiv, dr Bonikowska drew attention to the complexity of the EU enlargement process. It is already difficult for some institutions to coordinate joint actions of member states, so the potential increase in their number to more than thirty will be met with internal resistance.
The EU is not ready for such an enlargement because accepting new member states is connected to financial, organizational, and operational challenges. However, the fact of granting Ukraine a candidate status in 2022 testifies to the EU’s interest in Ukraine and for its capabilities to accelerate certain formal processes. This is why the next EU enlargement is inevitable. But it is not something that can happen within the next few years – said dr Bonikowska, the President of the Centre for Foreign Relations.
