Zelenskyy: it is time to make a decision on starting negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the EU
Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that the time has come for a decision to start negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.
“It is high time to remove artificial political uncertainty in relations between Ukraine and the EU. It is high time for a positive decision to open negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership,” Zelensky said at a press conference following a meeting with EC head Ursula von der Leyen in Kiev.
He expressed hope that in June Ukraine will receive a positive interim assessment from the EC of its progress towards European integration.
Zelenskyy signed Ukraine’s application for EU membership on 28 February 2022. The EU heads of state and government at a summit in Brussels on 23 June approved granting Ukraine and Moldova candidate status to join the union. Countries need to meet a number of conditions to start accession negotiations, including implementation of reforms.
Obtaining candidate status is only the beginning of a rather long road to EU accession. Turkey has been a candidate since 1999, Northern Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010 and Serbia since 2012. The latest to join the EU so far was Croatia in 2013, a process that took ten years.
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