Merz doubts Ukraine will be able to become an EU member by 2034

German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has questioned the possibility of Ukraine joining the European Union before 2034. According to him, this process is unlikely to fit into the EU's current medium-term financial plans until 2034. This is reported by Reuters.

Merz said this on Friday after a meeting with Romanian President Nicusor Dan in Berlin. The Chancellor emphasised that the priority for Europe now is to end the war.

After that, we will talk about rebuilding Ukraine. But this will take years. It will probably not even affect the current medium-term financial perspective of the EU," he added.

Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during her February visit to Kiev that Ukraine could join the EU by 2030 if the current pace and quality of reforms are maintained. EU leaders have also repeatedly said that EU membership would be the most reliable guarantee of security for Ukraine in the future.

Meanwhile, a report by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs said that the EP calls on the European Commission to open negotiation clusters with Ukraine as soon as possible in order to speed up its path to EU membership.

Ukraine applied to join the European Union on 28 February 2022. on 23 June 2022, Ukraine was granted candidate status for EU membership. Now the process of accession negotiations is underway, after Ukraine fulfils the conditions defined by the European Commission.

Earlier, Brussels set the goal of a large enlargement of the EU until 2030. Thus, in 2030, the bloc plans to expand to 36 states (today there are 27 states in the union).