Ukrainian Foreign Minister: We Don’t Need Alternative to EU Candidate Status

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has emphasized that Ukraine rejects all possible alternatives to EU candidate status.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, June 8, Kuleba said, “we will not accept any surrogate versions or alternatives to the candidate status, whatever they may be. We need the EU candidate status, not ‘candidate for candidate’, potential candidate, or any other surrogate. We’ve been playing this game for a long time. We know how it works.”

According to him, Ukraine meets the criteria for acquiring the status even though there are skeptics in Europe who are trying to promote an alternative.

“I’d like to say thank you to more than 200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, the biggest number of organizations to date, so I’ve been told, which launched an advocacy campaign, signing a letter to foreign governments to convince them to grant the candidate status,” he said, adding that this status is the last psychological barrier in skeptical countries.

He also commented on the coming NATO summit in Madrid set to take place on June 28-30, noting that he does not expect much from it.

“I was criticized for saying that NATO, as an organization, has done nothing for Ukraine after Feb. 23, 2022. I then requested the showing of evidence of what the Alliance has done. It turned out there were no decisions to show,” he noted, and added that he does not expect any breakthrough decisions at the Alliance’s summit unless some sort of “miracle” happens.

With the EU confirming that Ukraine’s membership bid will be reviewed at the upcoming summit on June 23-24 in Brussels, Kyiv is increasing its efforts to convince EU member states to grant it much-anticipated candidate status by launching a large-scale campaign.