At one time, President Volodymyr Zelensky named Hungary and Germany among the countries that vote against Ukraine in the EU.. In an interview with ZN. UA Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olga Stefanishina said that there are more such countries.

“But the path to EU membership cannot be easy. Therefore, we agreed with the president that we would discuss the dynamics of the process every week: the list of these countries is constantly changing, as some states (which I would not like to name) realize that Ukraine is a big country that will become a competitor. The realization that Ukraine will become part of the EU changes the position of some countries,” she said..

Stefanyshina says there is hesitation in some European countries.

“The vast majority of countries support Ukraine's membership in the EU. But regarding the status of the candidate, some of them have a need to raise some questions, someone wants to delay the process. We have compiled a list of these issues, we have prepared a counterargument. And we — the government, embassies, civil society — are working with these countries,” she said..

The main game changer is Germany, which affects many countries.

“Therefore, we will direct all our efforts to Germany, as well as to the Netherlands (which at one time did not even agree to signing the Association Agreement), during these two months,” Stefanishina added..

Ukraine has also started a substantive dialogue with Austria, which has an ambiguous position on Ukraine's progress towards the EU, the Deputy Prime Minister noted..

“There is Hungary… We have a sad experience of cooperation with Budapest within NATO. And even today, when the Madrid summit is being prepared, Hungary is not ready to back down and continues to block the summit,” Stefanyshina recalled..

There are some countries that do not know Ukraine well. For example, Spain and Portugal. We will work with them super-intensively, says Deputy Prime Minister.

“It is important that there are countries where the rhetoric has changed very radically, in particular in Italy. In general, I see this country as a new leader in the EU along with France and Germany.

Today, Prime Minister Draghi is a person who is ready to demonstrate leadership,” Stefanyshina added..

She stressed that Ukraine has a new group of countries, in addition to the Baltic States and Poland, which have become our lawyers - these are the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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Read more in the interview of Volodymyr Kravchenko with Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanyshina about Ukraine's chances of obtaining candidate status in June and EU assistance in rebuilding the country "