Ruslan Stefantschuk, Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine, is currently making a speech in the National Council. A planned video broadcast of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in parliament had not materialized due to concerns from the FPÖ and initially the SPÖ over Austria’s neutrality. Stefantschuk is therefore received by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
The President of the Ukrainian Parliament is then received by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
Stefantschuk appeared in the EU parliament last week. In Strasbourg, the 46-year-old promoted his country’s rapprochement with the EU. Awarding EU candidate status at the EU summit on 23-24 June would spur further reforms, Stefantschuk said.
“We need this candidate status for EU accession”
He referred to the fierce struggle of his compatriots to defend Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on February 24. “We need to hear that what we do is not in vain,” Stefantschuk objected. “We need that incentive, we need that candidate status. That is what the Ukrainian people need to hear from Europe.”
Austria is skeptical of Ukraine’s rapid accession to the EU
Austria is reluctant to accelerate Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Nehammer recently called for a “European preparatory space”, an intermediate step between cooperation and full accession to the EU for states such as Ukraine and Moldova. Should Ukraine be granted candidate status, so should the states of the Western Balkans. Bosnia and Kosovo are not official candidates.
Source: Krone
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