EU must bend rules for Ukraine's membership — expert

She said this in an interview with the host of the program European Space, Yuriy Fizer. 

"The EU will be forced to think outside the box. Before Friedrich Merz was elected, there was no leadership there. If you look at France, Macron understands the problem, but he does not have a majority, and no one knows who will come to power in two years. Therefore, France, so to speak, is excluded from the process.

When I participate in events abroad and remind people that during the signing of Ukraine's negotiation framework with the EU, a mechanism for bilateral vetoes was included (a copy of the Albanian framework), what was done for the Balkans will also be done for us. In response, I hear: 'This is a bureaucratic European procedure, you must respect it.' I agree that European values must be respected, but when Europe faces such a threat as a Russian invasion, they must be flexible and ready to change the rules," Akulenko emphasized.

According to her, a French researcher recently said that in Europe, public opinion is always taken into account. But then he added: "If a war starts, what public opinion? We need to defend our country. If war begins, there will be no choice, and no one will take public opinion into account."

"There are people in the EU who understand this. Are they the majority? My hope is for Germany, since there is a deep understanding of the problem there. The only question is whether the new chancellor will be able to fully implement his plans, because he also has to maneuver between public opinion and what needs to be done.

Moreover, internal EU reforms are very unpopular. But they really need to do something. Simply closing their eyes and saying, 'We will follow procedures as we always have,' will no longer work. There are challenges now that Europe has never faced in its history," Akulenko added.

• On May 7, von der Leyen named three current priorities of the European Union, among which are accelerating the process of Ukraine's accession to the EU and opening all negotiation clusters in 2025.
• On Wednesday, May 14, the Ukrainian government approved Roadmaps needed to open the first cluster in the pre-accession negotiations between Ukraine and the European Union.