It Is Unlikely That Ukraine Will Soon Become Candidate For EU Membership - Dutch Prime Minister Rutte

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte believes that the likelihood that Ukraine will soon become a candidate for membership in the European Union is not very great.

This was reported by NL Times, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

“The chance that Ukraine will soon become a candidate for European Union membership is not very great, Prime Minister Mark Rutte thinks. Too many countries in the EU don't like the idea. That would also be unfair to countries in the Western Balkans that have been waiting much longer for candidate membership, he said in parliament,” the edition reports.

The report notes that the European Commission must first respond to the Kyiv government's request to become a candidate for membership. Then the heads of government decide on whether this should happen.

” One possibility is that Ukraine becomes a potential candidate member and is told how many steps it still needs to take to obtain this status, Rutte said. That happened before with Bosnia. It will also help ensure that the Ukrainian government is "not demotivated," Rutte said.

According to the publication, several parties in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, called for Ukraine to be made a candidate member as soon as possible, but the VVD is still "reluctant" to grant this status.

It is noted that according to Rutte, before the Russian invasion, Ukraine was very far from obtaining the status of a candidate for EU member state.

"European leaders previously said that Ukraine is part of the European family. According to Rutte, that was more of an "emotional" than a "legal" statement.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Germany and the Netherlands will supply 12 howitzers to Ukraine and train the military to handle them.