Germany's Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called on German businesses to invest in Ukraine, "a future EU member," during an address on Wednesday at a conference in Berlin on economic cooperation between the two nations.
"If you invest in Ukraine today and in the coming years, you are investing in a future EU member," Scholz said at the 7th German-Ukrainian economic forum.
Around 2,000 German companies are active in Ukraine, a country with which trade is set to rise from €8 billion in 2021 to almost €10 billion in 2023, he said.
After the war triggered by the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine will experience growth rates and development opportunities seen only in the Central and Eastern European countries that have joined the EU over the last two decades, he assured.
This enlargement of the Union has benefited Germany's economy, he stressed, all the more reason to support Kyiv in "its search for a just peace" that "respects and preserves Ukraine's independence and free choice for its future in Europe."
For Olaf Scholz, the EU accession process creates certainty that Ukraine will become a full member of the Union.
However, there is still a long way to go before then, he acknowledged.
Brussels officially launched accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in June, a process that Russia has done everything in its power to obstruct.
