The Ukrainian government makes clear that full EU accession remains a priority, ideally starting as early as next year. Speed is considered more important than immediate access to all rights and all EU subsidies.
An important part of this Ukrainian stance is the willingness to temporarily postpone agricultural subsidies. Ukraine may choose not to claim support from the European agricultural budget in the coming years, which constitutes a large majority of the EU budget.
A quarter of the EU
The agricultural sector is considered a sensitive topic within the European Union. The size of Ukrainian agriculture and the potential implications for the existing distribution of EU subsidies have long caused caution among agriculturally oriented EU countries. Ukrainian agriculture is about the size of a quarter of all EU agriculture.
Promotion
Speeding up
By temporarily foregoing these subsidies, Ukraine aims to alleviate such concerns and facilitate negotiations on swift full admission. At the same time, this means that integration of the agricultural sector will likely be completed later.
A few years’ delay for agriculture would mean that EU countries could make a decision this year about their multiannual budget and the planned agricultural policy for the period 2028 - 2035.
Partial membership
Parallel to this discussion, there is a proposal within the EU from France and Germany to work with an intermediate phase. In this setup, Ukraine would be brought closer to the Union, but still without full rights. Such a construction would mean that the country does not yet have full voting rights.
The Ukrainian leadership responds critically to proposals of this kind. They emphasize that the country wants to be treated as a full candidate member, without separate or weakened forms of membership.
Urgency required
According to Kyiv, the European Union must provide clarity about the path to full membership. This includes a concrete timeline and equal treatment compared to other candidate countries.
Even if an accession treaty is quickly reached, the process will still take time. All member states must individually approve such an agreement, which usually takes several years.