Ukraine will have to wait for decades before it can join EU: Macron

Paris, May 10 Ukraine will have to wait for decades before it is accepted in to the European Union, French President Emmanuel Macron has said, BBC reported on Tuesday.
Macron said this while addressing the EU’s parliament in Strasbourg, and instead suggested that Ukraine could join a “parallel European community” while it awaited a decision, thus allowing non-EU members to join Europe’s security architecture in other ways.


Ukraine began the process of applying to join the EU in February this year, four days after Russia’s invasion.
According to Macron a “parallel European community” should be considered instead, rather than suspending the EU’s strict membership criteria to fast-track Ukraine’s application,  unless we decide to lower the standards for accession and rethink European unity.
He said it would be “a way of anchoring countries which are geographically in Europe and share our values”.
This after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the EU’s executive would be publishing its initial opinion on Ukraine’s bid for membership in June.
Ukrainian officials confirmed on Monday that Ukraine had submitted the second part of its EU membership application to Brussels.