Poroshenko “EU Membership is a matter of years, not decades” – It isn’t

In a recent interview with a German media group President Poroshenko stated “I am absolutely sure that Ukraine will be accepted into the European Union. And it will be a matter of years, not decades. It is unlikely that any other country will be more enthusiastic about Europe than Ukraine.”

There is a lot to ponder from those three short sentences.

Putting aside on-going EU frustration over deliberately slow reform, particularly with regard to the genuine independence of institutions and regulators, and notwithstanding the obvious and deliberate glacial pace of completing the anti-corruption architecture in which so much EU (and others) energy and money has been invested, and despite already being far behind the implementation schedule of the Association Agreement (and DCFTA) with the EU, there are internal and structural issues within the EU that simply prevent Ukrainian membership within “a matter of years“.