Lenta.ru: Lenta.ru: A political analyst on the possibility of a two-tier system for the EU to meet Ukraine’s concerns

Ukraine has little chance of becoming a member of the modern EU in the near future because there is no consensus on this issue, said the political analyst.

’The process of harmonising legislation takes a long time. To date, Ukraine, for various reasons, is not ready for it. If it happens, it will raise the question of what to do with the candidate countries, the Balkan states, who have been undergoing this process for a long time. They will object to it. Nor is there any consensus within the European Union on this issue, as many want to support Ukraine. However, they do not want to accept it now without proper preparations, because this is an issue of the internal stability of the European Union,’ explained Tatiana Romanova.

The Head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, believes that the EU member states should take unconventional decisions to speed up the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU. According to Tatiana Romanova, it might lead to a change in the structure of the European Union.

‘There is an issue of the EU moving towards a two-tier system, where the lower tier would be the first level of membership with partial rights, and the upper tier would be the current European Union, with member states enjoying full rights. Two categories of membership could become a solution, but it would require a reform of the European Union, a process which is not quick, to say the least,’ said the political analyst.

The reform of the founding documents of the European Union that it would require may take more than a year. Once the text of the treaty has been agreed, it will require further ratification by all EU member states.

Tatiana Romanova, Associate Professor in the Department of European Studies

Ursula von der Leyen, Head of the European Commission, said that normally the accession process takes years, but in the case of Ukraine, members of the association should be prepared to speed it up.

’The most important thing for Ukraine is to decide what they want to do in the future and how they want to build their country. They want to join the European Union,’ she said.

The Ukrainian application for EU membership, which was signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 28 February, has been postponed until the summer. At an extraordinary summit, the EU leaders could not reach a consensus on whether Ukraine should be admitted following a fast-track procedure.

The Ukrainian leader earlier urged European countries not to delay the decision.

Following talks between the delegations in Istanbul, Kiev handed over proposals to the Russian side, among which was a clause stating that Moscow would not impede Ukraine’s accession to the EU.