Ukraine not ready to become EU member, lawmaker admits

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian lawmaker Alexey Kucherenko admitted that Ukraine is not ready to join the European Union, and asked Ukrainians to think whether they truly want this and are ready to tolerate higher gas and electricity bills. "Let me break it down for you. All Ukrainians understand that, let’s be honest, at this point we are not ready to accept the rules of their game and become a full-fledged member of the European Union," he told Ukrainian YouTube channel Superpozitsiya. He went on to say that if Ukraine is granted membership, it will have to "adjust its tariffs in accordance with the average market tariffs" in the EU, and urged Ukrainians to think whether they can afford to bear additional expenditures. "When our gas market and our energy market merge with the European ones, it will de jure and de facto imply that their energy prices will from now on apply to us as well. Are you ready, Ukraine? Look at your wallets, at your paying capacity, at our energy efficiency, which, honestly, is appalling. Our microeconomics and macroeconomics will not cope with such prices," the lawmaker said. The European Commission proposed launching talks to admit Ukraine back in 2024, but the plans were stalled amid opposition from Hungary. Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that Kiev must do everything it can to be technically ready to join the EU by 2027. In mid-February, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas argued, addressing the Munich Security Conference, that EU member countries were not ready to give Ukraine a date for membership.