Polish foreign minister says Ukraine will not become EU member before 2027, pointing to key obstacle

Despite the fact that Ukraine has been granted the status of a candidate for EU membership, a serious problem remains on the way to full accession - a legislative one. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said this in an interview with journalist Nataliya Moseychuk, pointing out that "it is not true that Ukraine has adopted all the laws necessary to advance the EU accession process.

We understand the reasons. You have a war, some MPs have left the country, some have resigned, but laws are not being passed," Sikorski said, stressing that he was saying this not as a critic, but as an ally and friend.

EU confederation and decision-making mechanisms

Sikorski noted that the European Union is a confederation, not a single state. This means that ultimate sovereignty rests not with the central bodies, the European Commission or the European Parliament, but with the member states. Most key decisions require the unanimous consent of all 27 countries.

It is because of this principle that Hungary was able to veto the start of Ukraine's accession negotiations.

One country out of 27 is able to block the process for the whole union. And this is not an exception, but a norm of the EU's work," the Polish Foreign Minister pointed out.

What needs to be done to join the EU

The official conditions for accession are called the Copenhagen Criteria, and they cover three key blocks:

• Political reforms. Independence of the judiciary, fight against corruption, rule of law, protection of minority rights.
• Economic conditions. Existence of a functioning market economy that can withstand competition within the EU.
• Legal harmonisation. Adoption of thousands of pages of European legislation (the so-called acquis communautaire, a body of EU law of over 80,000 pages).

"Exclusive" plan for Kiev

In parallel, the European Commission is developing a special phased membership plan for Ukraine. This is a kind of interim format, in which the country is gradually integrated into certain areas of the EU even before formal accession. This is a non-standard instrument, which has no analogues in the history of EU enlargement.

This approach may allow Kiev to get some of the benefits of membership before the full-fledged accession process is completed.

We shall remind you that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that the country be admitted to the EU by 2027. However, European leaders have repeatedly pointed out the inconsistency of the Ukrainian legislation with European standards.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, admitted back in February 2025 that the EU member states were not ready to give Ukraine a specific date of accession, while the admission to the union is not a political decision made "out of friendship", but a technical process that requires fulfilment of dozens of criteria.