The government wants to join the European Union without territorial restrictions

The government wants to join the European Union without territorial restrictions

Kyiv’s principled position is that the future agreement on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union should not contain any restrictions on territorial application.

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanyshyna said this during the hour of questions to the government in the Verkhovna Rada, she was quoted by Ukrinform .

Stefanishyna noted that there were no territorial restrictions in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, although parts of Ukrainian territories were already occupied by Russia.

"As for the war and EU membership, this is my principled position, which is based on legal arguments related to the process of signing the Association Agreement. It was signed when Crimea was annexed, when hostilities began in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions."

But the Association Agreement does not contain a word related to its territorial application, and the membership agreement of Ukraine should not contain such restrictions,” she said.

Stefanishyna informed that there is a special procedure of the European Commission, which provides for a recommendation to carry out activities in a country where part of the territory is not under effective control, for example in the case of Cyprus.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that the state, in its negotiating framework, which it will present at the first intergovernmental conference in June, will proceed from the fact that there can be no restrictions on the territorial application of the agreement.

“European integration will extend from Sevastopol to Kyiv,” the official emphasized.