To the European Union With a New Parliament

The next Ukrainian parliament is to work out legal basis in two to six years for Ukraine’s joining the European Union, First Vice Speaker Viktor Medvedchuk declared at a meeting with Slovene Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel on October 30. Mr. Medvedchuk stressed the need to “persuade Ukrainian electorate to give their votes to those people’s deputies who are ready to work twenty days a month in a plenary session regime to develop a legal basis for Ukraine’s entering the EU.” According to him, Slovenia’s experience in European integration is important for Ukraine, since Slovenia has come through “a thorny path and now is among the first candidates to join the European community.” Mr. Medvedchuk noted that for Ukraine this path will be “too thorny and politically loaded.” To back up his words, he gave an example of the recent passage of the Land Code, which is “one of the steps bringing Ukraine nearer to the European standards,” reports UNIAN. He said that Verkhovna Rada has in fact started the election struggle and thus “passing the laws, which would become a condition for Ukraine’s joining the European Union will become a task for the next parliament.”

Mr. Rupel, in turn, noted that Slovenia is ready to assist Ukraine in its quest for European integration and advised accelerating this process, explaining that “the more Ukraine delays entry into the EU, the harder it will be in the future,” since the terms for entering European Union are constantly changing and becoming more complicated. In his words, “The more countries enter the EU, the harder it is to hold negotiations, because joining it requires separate negotiations with each member state.”