Ukraine's struggle to determine Europe's security conditions - Czech Prime Minister

“Ukraine is fighting for its right to belong to our civilization, for its right to be free, and its struggle will also determine the security conditions in which we will live,” he said.

He pointed out that apart from threats from Russia, Europe must ensure its energy security and diversify its resources.

Fiala stressed the need to reduce dependence on risky regimes. He believes that the EU also needs to be independent in critical sectors such as the production of medicines and chips.

“We need to reduce our dependence on one source country. Although we cannot produce everything in Europe, we should not rely on a single supplier, which in this case is China,” the Prime Minister warned.

According to him, the EU should expand in the coming years to include the countries of the Western Balkans - Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo, as well as Moldova and Ukraine.

“Let's give them this chance and take advantage of the opportunities it will bring,” Fiala said.

He believes that this step is ultimately necessary for the security of the bloc.

“Any other scenario would be worse for them and for us,” he said.

Ukraine's EU accession

In December 2023, at the summit in Brussels, the European Council gave the green light to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

Ukraine was granted candidate status for EU membership in 2022. However, full membership required meeting seven conditions outlined for Ukraine in June 2022.

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanyshyna expressed the opinion that the fulfillment of two conditions was a “very good result”.