Delays in the decision to open the remaining five negotiating clusters and actions to restrict Ukrainian exports lead to doubts as to whether the EU truly wants to accept Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Trade Representative Taras Kachka stated, an Interfax-Ukraine agency correspondent reports.
"...when we report on our reforms, the EU applies measures that create barriers to our exports to the European Union. And within Ukrainian society, there is also a question mark over whether the EU really wants us there, or if this is competition," he said during the traditional YES Dinner Discussion, organized by the Pinchuk Foundation and the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Gdansk on the eve of URC 2026.
Kachka called for mutual trust to avoid turning the accession process into a classic multi-year process with the gradual opening of clusters.
"We need to have truly full trust in each other, and we need to really open these clusters – all of them, to show that the EU is serious when it says that Ukraine will be in the European Union. We must be as serious as possible," the deputy prime minister emphasized.
He noted that the EU is closing itself off from the rest of the world, and therefore Ukraine needs to join as quickly as possible.
"So, we need to take this as seriously as possible, play fewer games, preferably play no games, and so on. And then we respond with reforms as well," Kachka added.
He remarked that he admires the Ukrainian parliament, which passes truly important laws almost every week: on energy reforms in April, public procurement in May, taxation on digital platforms and railway reform in June.
"Therefore, I highly appreciate our parliament for its courage to be bold, passing laws in the seventh year of its mandate," the deputy prime minister said.
He also recalled the successes of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), and the High Anti-Corruption Court.
"We have a solid track record in fighting corruption; it is time to respect it and realistically respond with decisions regarding accession to the European Union… We are serious about our reforms, and now we need the same seriousness from the European Union," Kachka said.
