We bring to your attention the key messages of Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the President’s Office, Diplomatic adviser to the President of Ukraine during the 3rd EU Accession Exchange Forum:

• Ukraine is making the EU more united against all odds.  We all had the risk of a non-united EU in the beginning of open Russian aggression. Luckily, the aggressor president was mistaken. He would have counted on the same reaction of the world as it was in the beginning of 2014, but he miscalculated.
• Ukraine makes the EU more creative. Look how many new tools and instruments the EU is able to find, when it comes to sanctions or that some countries try to block certain issues, Ukraine facility etc. EU started to think outside the box.
• Ukraine makes the EU more secure. Even after our victory, Russia will not disappear anywhere, it will always be aggressive. We will be next to it, on the Eastern part of European continent. And when we are a member of the EU we do understand that the burden of Ukraine will be not only to secure own territory, but the whole European continent.
• Ukraine makes the EU quicker. Using our own example.   When we applied for membership on the 5th day of war, then fulfilled 5500 pages of questionnaire within one month and had done the seven steps for a little bit more than one year. A lot of people said that we will need 10, 7, 5 years to fulfil it, before the start of accession talks. Now we have started the accession talks and Ukraine is very ambitious in the screening process. So we promise to you that we will be moving with the same kind of speed. What we ask from you is to have a merit-based approach that is working now.
• Ukraine will definitely make EU stronger, multi-diverse, more prosperous with economic potential.
• Ukraine is pursuing its goal of becoming a member of NATO, a full-fledged member. It’s high time now to issue an invitation, which is only the start of the process. We definitely know and understand that the membership will not happen before the victory, but the invitation can be and should be issued to Ukraine. Yes, these are two interconnected processes (EU and NATO membership) and we are pursuing them on the both ways.

Video recording of the Forum is available here.

PHOTO report of the Forum is here.

The EU Accession Exchange Forum is organized by the New Europe Center in partnership with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, the International Renaissance Foundation, the European Council on Foreign Relations, the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, the Center for Liberal Modernity and the European Pravda. The EU Accession Exchange Forum is taking place with EU support, within the EU-funded “European Renaissance of Ukraine” project implemented by the International Renaissance Foundation.

New Europe Center is greatful for wide media support of the Forum to informational agency UKRINFORM.