The Dutch government does not want Ukraine to join the EU in an accelerated procedure, after the European Commission announced that the first stage of the process could be completed this summer, the Dutch news portal DutchNews wrote on Wednesday.

Foreign Trade and Development Minister Liesje Schreinemacher said in her parliamentary speech on Tuesday: accession requires a long technical process and Ukraine must meet the same criteria as other candidate countries.

Last week, Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the committee, handed the questionnaire for the first stage of the procedure to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and promised that its processing would only be "a matter of weeks" .

Leaders of several member states signed a declaration in which they called for the evaluation of candidate member status and the speeding up of the accession process.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet, however, have a different opinion: they believe that the simplified membership process would set a precedent for other candidate states, DutchNews wrote.

According to Liesje Schreinemacher, the so-called Copenhagen criteria - according to which candidate members must have stable democratic institutions, a functioning market and the ability to implement EU law - cannot be avoided.

The news portal of the Dutch broadcaster NOS wrote on Wednesday that the Hague government sees Von der Leyen's announcement as a "nice symbolic gesture" , and considers the EC President's visit to Ukraine "an important manifestation of solidarity"

However, a part of the lower house of the parliament, including the opposition, believes that the chairman of the committee exceeded his authority by making such a statement, thereby creating "false hope" Vicky Maeijer, a representative of the Eurosceptic radical right-wing Freedom Party, even called on Von der Leyen to resign as committee president. Several Dutch representatives believe that the chairman of the committee should retract his statements. Schreinemacher said that for the time being, it is necessary to wait for the commission's official position.

There is no question that Ukraine will become an EU member state tomorrow, they still have a long way to go," he declared.

Source: Mandarin

Image: MTI