Ukraine’s path to the European Union is being sabotaged, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the process was being “sabotaged and compromised” after Hungary has continuously blocked Ukraine’s membership bid.
The EU was now considering moving along in the accession process with Moldova while leaving Ukraine behind. Budrys said the process should be based on merit, not on the will of a single member state.
“We should not be talking about couplings or decouplings, but about how we should return to a merit-based assessment of the process,” Budrys said.
“Ukraine's progress is obvious at the moment, the European Commission has no doubts about it. [Ukraine's progress] should meet all the conditions for the opening of the first block of chapters and we cannot do that. And that is the problem,” he said.
“That is why, together with the EC, we are looking for ways to resolve that [situation]. And in the current conditions, playing around and adapting to the rules imposed on us by Hungary, well, sorry, then we are dysfunctional as an organisation and we can close the issue of enlargement as such altogether,” the minister said.
He also pointed out that further EU enlargement without Ukraine is not possible.
“If there is no Ukraine in the EU, it means that there will be no EU enlargement,” Budrys said.
Speaking to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview earlier this month, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said she could not rule out a “decoupling” of Moldova and Ukraine as soon as June when a raft of enlargement decisions is expected to be made in Brussels.
Moldova and Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after thousands of Russian troops crossed over into Ukraine in early 2022. Last year, the 27 EU member states gave both the green light to start accession talks.
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