EU must undergo reform before Ukraine can join bloc: French junior Europe minister

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - France’s junior minister for Europe asserted Monday that Ukraine will have to be included in the European family by undertaking fundamental reforms of the European Union as French President Emmanuel Macron made a bid for a “parallel European community."

Clement Beaune, who holds the office of the secretary of state for European Affairs, told RTL news that in the years to come, “Ukraine will have to be brought into the European family and into the European political project." He added that the enlargement of the EU will require changing the current format of the regional bloc.

Highlighting the impending addition of new member countries from Eastern Europe, Beaune said there must be reforms.

“With 27 member states, it's already difficult (to manage the workings of the EU)...We cannot have an EU with more members without profoundly changing things...We will have to do things differently,” he said

Ukraine applied for EU membership four days after Russia launched the war in late February. The bloc is yet to respond to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeal to fast-track its membership.

In Strasbourg, Macron also made a case for a "parallel European community" in view of the EU's strict membership criteria. He estimated that it will take several years or even decades for Ukraine to gain membership unless the EU lower’s the standards for accession.

According to Macron, Kyiv could join the proposed parallel European community until it officially gets accepted into the bloc.

At least 3,381 civilians have been killed and 3,680 others injured in Ukraine since the war with Russia began on Feb. 24, according to UN estimates. The true toll is feared to be much higher.

More than 5.8 million people have fled to other countries, with some 7.7 million people internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.