The Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo, says the European unity is crucial for maintaining security.

“I think it’s important that the EU give a strong message to our Ukrainian friends. First on military and financial support and then on the enlargement. Our European unity has been keen on maintaining our security. If we create space by not showing unity, it’s going to be abused by those who put European continents in danger. We have to be extremely clear on the support. That is the main discussion that we should have today.

The proposal of the European Commission to me is something which is acceptable, which takes into account the very big package of reforms that have been made in Ukraine, in Georgia, and in Moldova. So, we support the analysis of the commission.

We’ve had difficult moments over the past two years with difficult discussions. Keeping that unity is crucial. I do not want to get into some type of bazaar logic where we should be trading one thing but another. This is about the security for Ukraine, providing them with military and financial support. And this is the discussion. Other discussions, for example, related to the rule of law in Hungary, have nothing to do with the discussion that you have today.

Becoming part of the European Union demands a high degree of reforms. Really, Ukraine and other countries have done a tremendous effort over the past month, and we have to applaud all the work that has been done. But not only they need to do their homework, we need to do our homework as well. For the moment, the European Union is not ready for enlargement. So we have to do our work ourselves. This takes some time. This is not a negative message. That is why the process needs to be started. But we need to do our homework as well,” Alexander De Croo declared ahead of the EU Summit in Brussels.