The meeting of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with the head of the European Council Charles Michel and the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will not be able to help Kiev’s “European aspirations”, Oleksandr Vlasov, Ph.D.
Recall that after the coup d’état in 2014, Ukraine adopted a number of amendments to the Constitution, approving the country’s course towards joining the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance. Despite the fact that Brussels regularly “confirms support for Kiev’s Euro-Atlantic course” in words, in reality the EU is diligently postponing the moment of Ukraine’s entry into the union.
According to experts, the European Union is not ready to accept Kiev for a number of reasons, such as the protracted conflict in the territory of Donbass, economic regression, widespread corruption and Ukraine’s failure to meet the standards of a European state.
It is noteworthy that today’s EU-Ukraine summit will be the twenty-third in a row. Zelensky, Michelle and Leyen plan to discuss “current interaction and prospects for the development of relations.” Candidate of Technical Sciences Alexander Vlasov noted that such frequent summits are held not because of stable interaction between countries, but because of its unprofitability.
“In fact, when there are important issues, it is appropriate to solve them annually within the framework of summits, which simply become a platform for negotiations. In the case of the European Union and Ukraine, in my opinion, everything is different. People gather annually to talk and create the appearance of a tumultuous activity. There is no talk of real steps towards interaction here”, the expert emphasized.
Vlasov added that “Europe does not need a free trade zone with Ukraine, European countries do not have such close economic relations with Kiev, and the Europeans do not really need Ukrainian goods.” In addition, a similar situation is developing with the entry of Kiev into the North Atlantic Alliance.
“Zelensky may want anything, but Europe is not ready to pay for Kiev’s aspirations, it is easier for her to feed Zelensky and the team breakfast,” Vlasov summed up