Ukraine's accession to the European Union: the nuances of the shortened procedure/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk, Channel 24
Very interesting phenomenon of this shorthand procedure. Officially, it has never existed before. That is, it is more of a political statement to support the Ukrainian resistance and provide a political signal regarding our membership. Read more in the exclusive blog for Channel 24 website.
The Poles were the first to come up with it. Later, this initiative was taken up by the Prime Minister of Slovakia.
When Ukraine can become a member of the EU
It should be immediately explained what it is (shortened procedure – 24 channel) does not mean entry tomorrow. This procedure is designed to speed up for us the passage of the path to membership, which other countries have been going for 8-10 years, carrying out along the way all 35 chapters of the reforms envisaged by the plan.
We can go this way in 2-3 years. Despite the fact that we are already seeing rapid progress, when a little more than a week has passed since the filing of the application, and already on March 7, the EU Council at the level of permanent representatives instructed the European Commission to prepare an opinion.
For example, if we take Bosnia , then a year has passed for this country from the date of filing the application to the preparation of the conclusion.
Ukraine can join the EU under a shortened procedure/Photo by Valentina Polishchuk, Channel 24
Why Ukraine was not offered a shortened procedure before
I must say that in 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity, the EU was also delighted. We then very quickly signed the Association Agreement. Then came the promise of full membership.
Then President Poroshenko said it would be very fast. However, the promised did not happen because at that time Europe was afraid of war. And after the signing of “Minsk” the Europeans saw that things were going to freeze the conflict. Therefore, they finally refused to take the initiative in the plane of Ukrainian European integration. Visa-free travel became the last movement towards that time.
Now the situation is radically different. Now they see in Brussels that we are really defending Europe. Each conflict on one scale or another pushes the European side and us towards each other.
