Rada ticks all boxes needed to start EU membership talks with European Commission, says Stefanchuk
Rada ticks all boxes needed to start EU membership talks with European Commission (Photo:Press service of the Verkhovna Rada)
Ukraine’s parliament has implemented all of the European Commission recommendations it is responsible for, and that are necessary to start negotiations on Ukraine’s membership of the European Union, Rada speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on Dec. 14.
The announcement was made following the Dec. 13 plenary session, at which the latest European integration draft laws were adopted.
“We can confidently say that the Verkhovna Rada has done its part and adopted all the necessary systemic draft laws to implement the recommendations of the European Commission,” Stefanchuk said.
He also named all the laws and necessary decisions that were adopted by the parliament almost six months after Kyiv became a candidate for EU membership:
- On making changes to some legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the improvement of the procedure for selecting candidates for the position of judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on a competitive basis;
- On media;
- On national minorities;
- On making changes to some laws of Ukraine regarding the simplification of the order of information necessary for financial monitoring;
- On the ratification of the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism;
- On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine on Prevention and Counteraction of Legalization (Laundering) of Criminal Proceeds, Financing of Terrorism, and Financing of the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction;
- The legislation has been adapted to individual FATF standards and the requirements of EU Directive 2018/843.
Parliament also elected two candidates according to its quota as members of the High Council of Justice.
Ukraine applied for EU membership in February 2022 and was granted EU candidate status in June 2022, along with Moldova. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that this was a historic moment in the relations between Ukraine and the European Union.
The European Council proposed to the European Commission to report on the candidate countries’ progress on the fulfillment of the conditions listed by it in the conclusions to the respective applications for membership, and promised to make a decision on further steps “as soon as all these conditions are fully fulfilled.”
Anna Luhrmann, Minister of State for Europe for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, said at the beginning of December that Ukraine has made great progress in carrying out the reforms necessary for joining the European Union, so negotiations on this issue can begin in the near future.
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