Kallas: EU Not Yet Ready to Give Specific Date for Ukraine's Accession

Moscow (ANTARA) - The European Union is not yet ready to give Ukraine a definitive date for joining the bloc, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Sunday.

“I think the member states are not yet ready to give a definitive date,” she said at the Munich Security Conference, when asked about Ukraine’s accession date in a possible peace agreement.

“There is still much work to be done, but I think the priority is that we need to move quickly and show that Ukraine is part of Europe,” she added.

In June 2022, the EU granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, and set several conditions for the commencement of accession talks.

In June 2025, the first EU-Ukraine and EU-Moldova intergovernmental conferences were held in Luxembourg, marking the official start of EU accession negotiations.

Obtaining candidate status and commencing negotiations does not guarantee EU membership. Turkey has been a candidate since 1999, North Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, and Serbia since 2012.

Croatia, the last country to join the EU, did so in 2013 after a process that took 10 years.

Source: Sputnik-OANA