Ukraine's EU ambassador Chentsov says enlargement talks should focus on substance, not labels, as Kyiv pushes to move forward on the accession process as soon as possible.
Gradual integration of Ukraine into the EU is a good way to deliver early benefits of enlargement, but the focus should be on substance rather than titles, Kyiv's ambassador to Brussels told Euronews.
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In the past few weeks, European capitals have floated a series of ideas on how to reform the EU accession process, including a proposal from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for an "associate membership" status that would include security guarantees.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by contrast, has insisted that Ukraine deserves full membership, not partial participation of any kind.
"Let's not concentrate on the title, let's concentrate on the substance," Vsevolod Chentsov, Head of the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union, told Euronews on Monday.
Chentsov pointed out that it isn't just Germany: other member states and the European Commission are also weighing ways to gradually integrate Ukraine into the bloc.
"The idea is good because we need to deepen our partnership, economic cooperation, institutional setup. There are several ideas on how to get Ukraine closer. We just need to work together to ensure that Ukraine feels the benefit of enlargement already at this stage," he said.
Last week, Ukraine and Moldova marked another milestone in the enlargement process, with all EU countries agreeing to move ahead with the second of the six accession clusters, though formal confirmation is still due on 14 July.
Ukraine and the Commission have spent the past few weeks pushing to open all the remaining clusters at once, arguing that early groundwork has already been laid while Kyiv's accession bid was blocked by then Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Since Orbán was ousted from power in a landslide victory by Péter Magyar in April, Budapest has slowly shown more openness to moving forward, while resisting pressure to accelerate the process too quickly for domestic reasons.
"We are ready to open all EU accession clusters today," Chentsov said. "We don't think there is any reason to keep this process pending. We need to move as fast as possible."