Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said it is unlikely that Ukraine will become a member of the European Union by early 2027, as no negotiation chapters have been opened yet.
Plenković told reporters this at an informal meeting of EU member state leaders in Cyprus on Thursday, April 23.
“We support Ukraine’s accession. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect this to happen on January 1, 2027 <…> As the newest members, we know how complex this comprehensive process is,” Plenković noted.
According to him, it is practically May 1, and not a single negotiation cluster has been opened yet. At the same time, no bloc expansion process can be shortened enough to be completed in seven months.
Plenković recalled that Croatia’s EU accession process took six years — from 2005 to 2011.
He added that there is a general desire to accelerate Ukraine’s EU accession process; however, based on his knowledge and experience, full membership with all standard procedures within eight months is unlikely.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on April 20, the Financial Times wrote, citing its own sources, that France and Germany had called for granting Ukraine “symbolic” EU membership, under which it would have no voting rights or access to the bloc’s budget.
Earlier in April, Politico reported, citing sources, that four EU member states had opposed Ukraine’s accelerated membership.
© 2026 Ukrainian News Agency
It’s an open secret that the EU is in fact a Franco-German project and run by them.
In most of the post-1991 years, Germany has had a ruZZian agent Chancellor or at least a pro-ruZZia Chancellor. That only changed in 2022.
France is not quite so extreme, but it had actual or defacto agents Hollande and Sarkozy.
If the Franco-Germans had wanted Ukraine or Georgia in, they would have engineered it.
It seems to suit them to have stupid rules that ensure piss-ass countries can overrule the wishes of the majority.
If they decide Ukraine and Georgia can join, they will enable it in an instant. Unfortunately I suspect that they want to resume business as usual with putlerstan after the war. I hope I’m wrong.
Over the years, the EU has became more powerful and Nato has gone from unfit for purpose to an irrelevance.
Nato will keep Ukraine out indefinitely and the EU appears to want to ensure that membership drags on for another 5 years.
Personally I think Germany and France are afraid of becoming irrelevant when Ukraine becomes all it can be and becomes a major European power which has already happened on the military side