The European Commission recommended this Saturday to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for the European Union (EU), announced the President of the European Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, after examining kyiv’s request in record time before the Russian invasion.
This recommendation will be debated at the European summit on June 23 and 24 and, for the process to move forward, the leaders of the 27 countries of the bloc must unanimously give their green light.
“The Commission recommends to the Council, firstly, to give Ukraine a European perspective and, secondly, to grant it candidate status. This, of course, on the condition that the country undertakes a certain number of important reforms,” said Von der They read at a press conference.
The President of the Commission also announced that the same recommendation for EU candidate status is made for Moldovaa neighboring country of Ukraine and which has its own conflict with the Kremlin over the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria.
We also recommend to grant Moldova the candidate status, on the understanding that the country will carry out reforms.
⁰?? is on a real pro-reform, anti-corruption and European path.
⁰It still has a long way to go. But we believe it has the potential to live up to the criteria. pic.twitter.com/m7nEnGTbBY– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 17, 2022
On the contrary, he urged that the situation of Georgia, another state in the region that applied to join the EU, be reassessed before also recommending giving it candidate status.
This Caucasus nation had a brief but bloody war with Russia in 2008 that ended with the self-proclamation of the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as republics, supported by Moscow.
“We all know that the Ukrainians are willing to die to defend their European aspirations. We want them to live with us, for the European dream”Von der Leyen said.
Never has a recommendation of this type been so quick about a request for candidacy, an urgency due to the invasion that Russia began almost four months ago, and which is part of the support given by Europeans to this country against Moscow.
In his first reaction to the ad, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, applauded the “historic decision” to recommend granting his country the status of a candidate for the bloc.
“Grateful to Ursula von der Leyen and every member of the European Commission for a historic decision,” Zelenski said on Twitter.
Hours before, Russia had said that it will follow with “special attention” this approach of Ukraine to join the EU.
“This, of course, requires our special attention, as we are all aware of the intensification in Europe of discussions on strengthening all the elements that make up the EU’s defense,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.
The spokesman noted that “it would be great if European leaders influenced Ukraine’s leadership … to take a serious look at the situation.”
France, Germany and Italy, three heavyweights in the European bloc, spoke out for the “immediate” granting of this official candidate status to Ukraineduring the visit made to kyiv on Friday by their respective leaders: Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Mario Draghi.
