Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that Ukraine needs exclusively the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union, and no other surrogate alternatives.
He said this at a briefing on Wednesday, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"On obtaining the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union at the end of June this year. This, of course, is now a super "fight." The President set the entire diplomatic team a task - we must win this fight. And I want to once again confirm that Ukraine will not perceive any surrogate versions or alternatives, no matter how pink they are. We need the status of a candidate for EU membership. Not a candidate of candidate, not a potential candidate, not another surrogate, none of that. We are simple, humble people who will be satisfied with the usual status of a candidate for membership in the European Union," Kuleba said.
The Minister noted that Ukraine meets all the criteria for obtaining such a status, but the EU has skeptics who offer Ukraine alternatives.
"Ukraine has earned the status of a candidate, meets the criteria for obtaining it. This is the position of not only the government, but also civil society. I want to thank more than 200 Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, and, as I was told, this is the largest number of organizations in history that have united as part of an advocacy campaign and signed an open letter to foreign governments that Ukraine needs to be granted the status of a candidate for EU membership this June. I honestly want to tell you that there are skeptics who are trying to bribe us with some alternatives, but we need to work. And I ask everyone not to slow down," Kuleba emphasized.
In his opinion, the status of a candidate for EU membership is the last psychological barrier among skeptics and Ukraine should overcome it, since after that the situation will change.
"Candidate status is the last psychological barrier for EU skeptic countries that we have to overcome. The situation will be completely different when this barrier collapses... I do not see any rational arguments from our skeptics not to give us the status of a candidate," the Minister summed up.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for an intermediate stage between cooperation and full membership of the European Union for countries such as Ukraine and Moldova.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte believes that the likelihood that Ukraine will soon become a candidate for EU membership is small.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy excludes an alternative to the status of a candidate for the European Union membership for Ukraine and expects a positive response from the EU to grant such status in June.
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