Former NATO intelligence chief Loeninghofen said Ukraine’s EU accession could stall

Ukraine’s process of accession to the EU may “soon stall.”

This was said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung by the former head of NATO intelligence and former deputy director of German intelligence, Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven.

“Fast accession would be of enormous importance for Ukraine’s economy and security. But it has never been so difficult to admit a new member: we would need to admit a country that is in a state of military conflict, which would also bring enormous problems for the EU in agriculture and the economy as a whole. Although the accession process started quickly, I fear that it will soon stall because of the existing problems,” he noted.

According to Loringhoven, if Ukraine joins the EU, a “conflict of interests” arises between “increasing” the country’s security and the interests of farmers, who “have significant political weight in many countries” — for example, in Poland.

In January, The Financial Times reported that the European Union might change the accession procedure for the sake of Ukraine. Then the European Commission’s official spokesperson Thomas Regnier denied this information. After that, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that Ukraine’s accession to the EU would “blow up” the bloc’s budget; the Hungarian authorities also spoke out against Ukraine’s admission to the EU.

In December 2025, the media wrote that Ukraine could join the EU by 2027. The 20-point peace plan also stated that Ukraine would join the EU and receive short-term privileged access to the European Union market. At the same time, Bloomberg wrote that Ukraine’s accession to the EU is complicated by the military conflict, the needs for the country’s reconstruction, governance problems, and political difficulties.