Ireland backs Ukraine's soonest possible accession to EU - Irish FM

MOSCOW. Nov 9 (Interfax) - Ireland supports Ukraine's soonest possible accession to the European Union, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister and Defense Minister Simon Coveney said.

"What motivates many Ukrainians is the dream of a different future. The kind of future we enjoy in the EU today, in terms of peace, stability, prosperity, democracy and everything that follows from that," Ukrainian media quoted Coveney as saying in an interview published in the Wednesday edition of Bild.

Ukraine "should be able to hope for full EU membership, not some kind of partial membership or neighborhood agreement," he said.

Apart from Ukraine, other countries, including Balkan states and the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia, should also benefit from the EU's enlargement, he said.

"We have delayed the process of admitting some Balkan countries for too long," he said.

While there should be some mandatory standards that candidate countries have to comply with, "we also need to acknowledge progress when it happens," Coveney said.