Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, said that the European Union must respond to the pace of Ukraine’s reforms with the same speed and cannot use discussions about different integration models as a way to delay full membership.
She made the statement at the GLOBSEC security conference in Prague.
“The consensus is to take the next steps. If someone had told us that a country at war, attacked by another state, would be able to catch up so impressively in terms of legislative and technical work — work that takes other countries ten years — we would hardly have believed it. So we cannot turn away without responding to this speed with equal speed,” Metsola said.
According to her, the European Union must not only acknowledge Ukraine’s progress but also make practical decisions that allow candidate countries to feel their efforts have not been in vain.
“My responsibility is to say that yes, enlargement is merit-based — nobody disputes that — step by step. But let’s open the first clusters. Let’s take the necessary step for these countries and their people so they can say: we did not do all this for nothing,” the European Parliament president urged.
Metsola also warned against a situation in which discussions about different formats or intermediate integration models effectively become a way to leave candidate countries outside the EU indefinitely. She acknowledged that various transitional stages are possible, including participation in specific areas of cooperation such as the single market, customs union, roaming zone, Erasmus exchange programs, or Horizon initiatives.
At the same time, she stressed that such arrangements cannot replace the political decision regarding Ukraine’s future membership.
“We simply need to do what we have to do, look at the available opportunities, and not use various models as an excuse to permanently ‘park’ these countries outside the EU, because that is another risk we face. But this must not come at the expense of the fundamental decision that has already been made — Ukraine will join the EU. I will not name dates, as that is not within the European Parliament’s competence, but I wanted to emphasize this clearly,” Metsola said.
She also recalled that after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the European Parliament overwhelmingly supported the prospect of EU membership for Ukraine and Moldova, a position later confirmed by EU heads of state and government.
