Domotor: Ukraine’s EU accession ‘70,000 billion forint issue’

Csaba Domotor said it was not clear “why some decision makers and out of what expectations would they want to see Ukraine in the EU before other countries having a candidate status for decades.” “The most serious questions are yet to be answered,” he added.

Referring to press reports based on a leaked document Domotor said Ukraine’s full membership would involve the EU giving 186 billion euros to that country while “Europe has already been Ukraine’s greatest financer”.

The EU “fails to provide an official answer as to how Ukraine’s membership would impact the peoples of each member state,” Domotor insisted, adding that the leaked document suggested that “most countries now receiving subsidies from the EU would become net contributors.” As a member, Ukraine would be the EU’s largest agricultural producer and each country would see 20 percent less direct agricultural subsidies, he said. Domotor insisted that Ukraine’s accession would serve the interests of large Ukrainian agricultural companies “often owned by businesses overseas” rather than the interests of European farmers. It has not been clarified what compensation European farmers, whose situation will become “extremely difficult”, would receive, the state secretary said.