Zelenskyy urges EU to speed up consideration of Ukraine’s membership bid
Zelensky made the appeal during a speech at a meeting of the European Council (Photo:Office of the President of Ukraine)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the European Union to move to the next stage of consideration of the country’s membership of the bloc in a speech delivered by video at a meeting of the European Council on Dec. 15.
Zelenskyy said that despite the war, Ukraine has not stopped "institutional transformation in the country."
Zelenskyy noted that this week the Ukrainian parliament had approved three European integration laws necessary to start negotiations on EU accession.
"This is just one illustration of the many things we have done to prepare the next stage of rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU, namely, the assessment of the implementation of the European Commission's recommendations, which we expect from you in the near future and we ask you to do it and speed up this process in order to move on to the start of negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the EU," Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president also thanked the leaders of European states for supporting Ukraine in obtaining its status as a candidate for EU membership.
European Union leaders at the summit on June 23 supported the granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated at the time that it was a historic moment in relations between Ukraine and the bloc.
The European Council invited the European Commission to report on the fulfillment by the candidate countries of the conditions listed by it in the conclusions on the respective membership applications and promised to decide on further steps "as soon as all these conditions are fully met."
In early December, the Minister of State for Europe and Climate at the German Foreign Office, Anna Lührmann, said that Ukraine has made great progress in implementing the reforms necessary for accession to the European Union, so negotiations on this issue may begin soon.
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