May 10. 2024. 11:47

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EU should not ‘lower the bar’ to take in Ukraine, says Denmark


The EU risks "importing instability" if it relaxes its standards on democracy and corruption to hasten the accession of Ukraine and other candidate countries, Rasmussen said in an interview with the newspaper.

To join the EU, a country has to align its laws with many EU standards ranging from climate to labour. That process usually takes many years.

When asked about Ukraine’s membership in the EU, Rasmussen said that EU shouldn’t "lower the bar" but instead help Ukraine with investments and assistance, the FT reported.

Although Ukraine met two out of seven conditions to launch the EU membership process, an EU official familiar with the bloc’s recommendations to Ukraine said that some key judicial reforms were needed.

In 2019, the European Commission proposed changes to the system for letting new countries into the EU to give existing members more say, after countries including France and Denmark objected to the expansion of the EU to include six countries in the Balkans.

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