Ukraine’s EU accession would strengthen bloc’s security and economy, Dombrovskis says
EU Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said that Ukraine’s membership in the European Union, in the current geopolitical conditions, will strengthen EU security and could provide an additional boost to economic growth.
He said this during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Censor.NET reports.
According to him, Ukraine’s accession to the EU is a "win-win scenario," because Ukraine, as a strong player, strengthens the Union in the security sphere, and its economic potential can strengthen overall economic momentum.
The commissioner recalled that the EU has already granted Ukraine candidate status and launched accession talks. This, he said, creates an important political "anchor" for reforms and provides a clear European perspective in the medium and long term.
Dombrovskis also considers concerns about the EU’s "capacity to absorb" a country as large as Ukraine to be exaggerated. He recalled the 2004 enlargement, when 10 countries joined the EU, including Poland, comparable to Ukraine in population size and the scale of its economy.
At the same time, the commissioner acknowledged that difficult issues will arise during the accession process, in particular in the agricultural sector and regarding competition in the EU’s internal market. Such discussions, he said, have already intensified during the introduction of autonomous trade measures and created tensions among farmers in Poland and other countries.
Separately, Dombrovskis noted that stepping up the enlargement process — regarding Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkan countries — also requires rethinking how the EU functions as a union of more than 30 states, including in the context of the veto right of individual member states.
