Latvia vows to help Ukraine facilitate its path to EU membership talks

19:29, 16.01.2024 1 min read

Latvia will apply efforts to make Ukraine's path to opening EU membership negotiations easier than was its own, Speaker of the Saeima Daiga Mieriņa has said.

"Your [EU] accession talks will contain enough hardships and obstacles, just as it was in the negotiation processes of Latvia and other nations at the time. Our goal is to reduce them and help you. Our ambition is to make your path to negotiations easier than it was for us," she said at a plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday.

Mieriņa emphasized that Ukraine's membership in NATO is one of the most important elements of Ukraine's security in the post-war European security architecture.

"This is the only way to guarantee long-term security of Ukraine and significantly strengthen the defense capability of Europe," she said.

Since the threat of Russian aggression will not end with Russia's defeat in Ukraine, and the agony of the collapse of the Russian empire can be destructive, bloody and continue for a long time, a comprehensive approach to building European security is needed, the Speaker of the Saeima said.