Home » News » Today you made one of the most important decisions for Ukraine in all 30 years of its independence / GORDON

Today you made one of the most important decisions for Ukraine in all 30 years of its independence / GORDON

This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during an online speech to the participants of the EU summit.

Video message published in the Facebook Office of the President.

“Today you made one of the most important decisions for Ukraine in the entire 30 years of independence of our state. However, this decision is not only for Ukraine. [Это] the greatest step towards the strengthening of Europe that could be taken right now, right in our time and in such difficult conditions, when the Russian war is testing our ability to preserve freedom and unity,” Zelensky said. “Today I want to once again personally confirm that Ukraine can become a full member of the EU.”

The President thanked the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, France, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Malta, Denmark, Luxembourg, Cyprus for supporting the candidacy for Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Hungary, as well as the President and members of the European Parliament, the heads of the European Council and the European Commission.

“Probably, in our state there were the most flags of the united Europe – our people had them in their hands during the revolutions, our people had them in the trenches since 2014. I believe that the EU flag will be in every Ukrainian city, which is yet to liberate from the occupation of the Russian Federation. Ukrainian and European flags will be together even when we rebuild our state after this war together,” Zelensky said.

The head of state separately thanked the summit of all the leaders of Europe and Ukrainian heroes – “each and everyone who defends the independence of Ukraine and the freedom of Europe with weapons in their hands.”

“Thank you for making possible a new history of Ukraine, a new history of Europe – even stronger and freer,” Zelensky summed up.



Together with Ukraine EU candidate status received Moldova, said the head of the European Council Charles Michel on Twitter. EU leaders also acknowledged Georgia’s European perspective and declared their readiness to grant it candidate status as soon as priority issues are resolved, he added.

Context:

February 28, four days after the start of a full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukraine filed an application for entry into the European Union. Zelensky said that in the current conditions he expects to join the bloc by special procedure.

The European Parliament supported granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership. Then an informal summit of EU leaders took place, where a decision was made, which, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, indicates that Ukraine will be a member of the EU.

17 June European Commission recommended to grant candidate status for EU accession to Ukraine and Moldova. At the same time, to start further negotiations on accession to the EU Ukraine will have to fulfill a number of conditions. In particular, we are talking about judicial reform, steps to combat corruption, money laundering and other measures.

Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishyna said on June 22 that Ukraine intends to implement the recommendations of the European Commission regarding granting it the status of an EU candidate until the end of 2022. In her opinion, Ukraine can become a member of the EU within 2-10 yearsnot decades, as some European officials predict.

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on June 22 during a speech in the European Parliament that, thanks to the Association Agreement of 2016, Ukraine “has already implemented about 70% of the rules, norms and standards of the EU.” “And all this progress has been made because the inhabitants of Ukraine have Europe in their hearts and minds“, – stressed the European official.

The last enlargement of the European Union took place in 2013 – Croatia joined the EU. Croatia’s accession to the EU took 10 years (from application for membership in 2003 to accession in 2013). At the beginning of 2020 the European Union left the UK.

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