The European Union must prepare for the accession of Ukraine and deal with the sensitive issue of the reforms that must be made for the accession of this country, an agricultural giant, warned today the president of the European Council Charles Michel.

“The debate will be difficult,” he told AFP in an interview ahead of the European summit in Brussels.

“But we shouldn’t wait until the last minute if, in December, the European Commission’s proposal suggests opening accession negotiations with Ukraine,” he warned.

“We have to say how we finance and organize financial solidarity and how we avoid discovering that we have an absorption problem,” he insisted.

The president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who will participate in today’s talks with European leaders in Brussels via video conference, calls for the start of accession negotiations from the end of 2023.

The relevant decision requires the approval of all 27 EU member states.

In June 2022, the European Union offered Ukraine the status of a candidate country for EU membership in a symbolic move following Russia’s invasion. Nine more countries, among them Serbia, Kosovo, Moldova and Turkey, are knocking on the Union’s door.

The candidate countries have obligations, but “the 27 must not close their eyes and pretend that they too do not have obligations”, insisted the president of the European Council.

If Charles Michel does not expect decisions on the matter during the two-day summit, he wants to start the process and prepare the next appointments.

The enlargement will be located at the center of the talks at the summits of Granada in Spain and Brussels at the end of the year, based on the proposals that the Commission will make for the accession requests of Ukraine, Moldova and the countries of the Western Balkans.

“My role is to establish a method,” says Charles Michel.

“If the Commission proposes the start of negotiations, we must see the effect this will have on decision-making, common policies, financing”, he explains. “Europe should not be afraid of the debate,” he said, insisting that enlargement “will have consequences for agriculture, cohesion, the budget.”

“We need an accurate picture of the available media, to know how the money was used, who should be the necessary adjustments».