For Ukraine to join the European Union, it will have to make a large number of compromises. Some will benefit from these changes, others will not, believes Oleksiy Ryabchyn, advisor to the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine – Minister of Justice of Ukraine, UNN reports.
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We have a window of opportunity that will close. And we might miss a historic chance to join the European Union due to certain things. Our generation might be written about in history textbooks as having overcome everything possible, or we might have failed
He added that Ukraine will have to make many compromises for successful accession to the European Union, but this could positively impact Ukrainian citizens.
We need to make so many compromises, but we must understand what it is for. There was recently a study suggesting that Ukraine needs to increase its GDP by 22% to join the European Union. Neighboring countries are increasing their GDP by 0.5% to 1%. This means the average Ukrainian citizen will benefit in certain aspects
Ryabchyn gave the example of the transport industry, noting that Ukraine will have to make concessions to European regulators here.
Yes, there might be problems somewhere. For example, the transport industry. Our carriers are overburdened, drivers do not stop every four hours, but drive all day, they have no replacements, they sleep in their vehicles. And because of this, we have advantages. European regulations, which care about people, indicate that there must be a 40-minute stop every 3-4 hours
The Vice Prime Minister's advisor added that against the backdrop of compromises Ukraine will have to make, the language issue for the Hungarian minority may not be so important.
We will have changes. Some will benefit from these changes, some may lose. We will have many choices. Language and all other issues with Hungarians can be resolved very quickly. This is not the most difficult choice that the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation will have to make
Addendum
The interdepartmental working group approved the draft negotiation positions of Ukraine for two more of a total of 6 clusters for negotiations on EU accession; the negotiation position for another cluster has already been approved by the government and submitted to the European Commission.