EU Commission President signals Ukraine could join EU before 2030

According to Politico, von der Leyen, who was in the capital Kiev, made statements regarding Ukraine's EU membership process.

Von der Leyen praised Ukraine's "progress" towards membership, saying: "I really appreciate the political will that has been shown. I would even say that if Ukraine's merit-based process continues at this pace and with this quality, it could happen before 2030."

Ukraine applied for EU membership on February 28, 2022, four days after Russia's attack, and received its candidate status on June 23, 2022.

Although the decision to start membership negotiations was made at the EU summit on December 23, 2023, Hungary's veto could not be overcome for a long time.

With the official start of negotiations on 25 June 2024, it was the first time that the EU had decided to start negotiations with a country after a short period of 2.5 years had passed since the application date, and it was also the first time that it had sat at the negotiating table with a country that was actually at war .