The political scientist called the EU's calls for Ukraine's accession symbolic support for Kiev.

Calls to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union do not oblige the European Union (EU) to anything and are only symbolic support for Kiev. Denis Denisov, a political scientist, shared this opinion with Izvestia on Friday, June 27.

"This does not mean at all that it [the negotiation process] will end effectively and in the foreseeable future. <...> This approach to the discussion does not commit to anything, it does not imply anything. So here, once again, we see a kind of symbolic support for Ukraine. At the same time, it is certainly premature to talk about any concrete results," he said.

Denisov noted that similar processes were relevant before. For example, with regard to Turkey, which has been a candidate country for EU membership since 1999. Negotiations on Ankara's admission to the European Union began back in 2005. The political scientist also cited the example of the Balkan states, which have been awaiting admission to the European Union for more than ten years.

The expert stressed that, according to sociological research, the majority of residents of a number of European countries oppose Ukraine's integration into the EU. However, at the official level, only Budapest made the appropriate rhetoric, which blocked the decision of the EU summit on Kiev's membership in the community.

At the same time, according to Denisov, it is incorrect to talk about a decrease in support for Ukraine by the EU countries, since practice suggests the opposite.

"Despite the rhetoric of some governments and countries regarding attempts to block or suspend this assistance, in the end, decisions are still being made in the interests of Ukraine," he concluded.

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Earlier, on June 26, it became known that the EU, following the results of the summit in Brussels, could not adopt a statement on Ukraine, since one of the countries of the association did not support it. The country that refused to accept the document was not specified.