During a summit in Brussels, heads of state of the 27 countries that make up the European Union formally accepted on Thursday (23) Ukraine and Moldova as candidates to join the bloc.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the decision “historic” and said that “Ukraine’s future lies in the European Union”. Candidate status is the first step in the process that will assess the entry of the two former Soviet republics into the bloc.
In a press conference this week, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that “there is still a lot of work” for the two countries to join the EU, as a Ukrainian advance in the fight against corruption, although she praised actions in this regard. sense already implemented by Kyiv.
Ukraine and Moldova submitted applications to join the bloc days after the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory, on February 24.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had nothing against Ukraine joining the EU, as it is not a military organization or a political-military bloc like NATO.
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