Ukraine’s accession to the European Union will not happen “in the next five to ten years,” Austrian EU Affairs Minister Karoline Edtstadler has predicted. Austria’s foreign minister has expressed a similar view, despite European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s insistence that Ukraine will be swiftly ushered into the bloc.
EU accession for Ukraine would be “a long process to adjust to, which certainly cannot be achieved in the next five to ten years,” Edtstadler told Austria’s APA news agency on Wednesday. The minister added that as some Balkan states have been waiting “for decades” to join the union, there could be no fast track for Ukraine.
Prior to Edtstadler’s comments, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg angered Kiev by suggesting that Ukraine instead pursue an association agreement with the EU, or integration into the European Economic Area. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko called this advice “strategically short-sighted and not in the interests of a united Europe.”