EU TO ISSUE ITS FINAL ADVICE ON UKRAINE’S MEMBERSHIP BID ‘NEXT WEEK’

Sat 10 June 2022:

During a visit to Kyiv, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the EU executive’s verdict on Ukraine’s application to join the European Union will be ready by the end of the week.

Von der Leyen said Saturday’s talks with Zelenskiy “will enable us to finalize our assessment by the end of next week” on whether to suggest Ukraine as a candidate for membership.

The move, which had been widely anticipated, would simply be the first stage in a long process.

All 27 EU governments would have to agree to grant Ukraine candidate status, after which there would be extensive talks on the reforms required before Kyiv could be considered for membership.

Von der Leyen, in her second trip to Kyiv since the start of the war in February, reminded Zelenskiy that, despite progress on administrative reforms and elsewhere, much still needed to be done.

“You have done a lot in strengthening the rule of law but there is still need for reforms to be implemented, to fight corruption for example,” she told the joint news conference.

Zelenskiy told the same briefing: “All of Europe is a target for Russia, and Ukraine is just the first stage in this aggression.

“This is why a positive EU response to the Ukrainian application for membership can be a positive answer to the question of whether the European project has a future at all.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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