{"id":285500,"date":"2025-07-23T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285500\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:18:11","slug":"von-der-leyen-demands-answers-from-zelenskyy-as-new-law-threatens-ukraines-eu-bid-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/285500\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen demands answers from Zelenskyy as new law threatens Ukraine\u2019s EU bid \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe president of the European Commission was in contact with President Zelenskyy about these\u00a0latest\u00a0developments,\u201d Guillaume Mercier, European Commission spokesperson, told POLITICO. \u201cPresident von der Leyen conveyed her strong concerns about the consequences of the amendments, and she requested the Ukrainian government for explanations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption are core elements of the European Union.\u00a0 As a candidate country, Ukraine is expected to uphold these standards fully. There cannot be a compromise,\u201d Mercier added. <\/p>\n<p>European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa also expressed his concern to Zelenskyy and asked for explanations, an EU official told POLITICO, after being granted anonymity to describe a private call.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Serious questions\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In Brussels, EU officials have been actively attempting to push Ukraine forward in its accession bid despite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s vigorous opposition. Now, Ukraine\u2019s progress risks stalling further, as even its close allies remind Kyiv that rule-of-law and anti-corruption reforms are essential prerequisites to EU membership that cannot be compromised.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an explicit warning, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AussenMinDE\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on X on Wednesday<\/a> that \u201climiting the independence of anti-corruption agencies hampers Ukraine\u2019s way towards the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zelenskyy\u2019s law placed Ukraine\u2019s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office (SAP) under the authority of the prosecutor general, which, agencies said, effectively destroys their independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe president of the European Commission was in contact with President Zelenskyy about these\u00a0latest\u00a0developments,\u201d Guillaume Mercier, European Commission&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11783,2575,31,13,12,7338,14,657,19655,1220,2601,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-285500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-antonio-costa","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rule-of-law","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-ukrainian-politics","17":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","18":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","19":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114903220438366102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}