Ukraine's EU integration still far off - Macron

BRUSSELS. Dec 15 (Interfax) - The European Union is yet to reform itself before admitting Ukraine into the community, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

"We are very far from the real [EU] enlargement with Ukraine," Macron told a press conference in Brussels on Friday after the conclusion of the EU's December 14-15 summit.

"Any enlargement will involve deeply reforming our rules," he said.

"This will only be possible by massively increasing funding, by changing the rules and mechanisms we have today," Macron said in reply to a question about French farmers fearing the prospect of Ukraine joining the EU.

"This will not be done at the expense of our agriculture, that is certain," he said.

"But this will not prevent us from thinking geopolitically. Can Europe today see itself without such a prospect? No," Macron said.