The European Union has launched a procedure to consider Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova applications to join the community.
The news was reported by France-Presse on the evening of 7 March 2022.
According to the agency, the European Commission will have to express a formal opinion, and then the 27 countries will have to decide whether to grant applicants with the candidate status. Negotiations on this issue are long and complex.
L'Union européenne a lancé la procédure pour l'examen des demandes d'adhésion de l'#Ukraine, de la Géorgie et de la Moldavie, a annoncé la présidence française du Conseil de l'UE #AFP pic.twitter.com/8v1G8MxvoS
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) March 7, 2022
Earlier today, Bloomberg quoted European diplomats who said that several EU countries were opposed to granting Ukraine candidate status this week. Germany, the Netherlands, and a number of other countries insist that the European Commission first comment on Ukraine's readiness to join the European Union before taking a political decision on granting the candidate status.
According to the agency's representative, these countries want to focus on practical support for Ukraine and ending the war rather than launching the process of joining the EU, which could take decades.
We should recall that on 28 February 2022, on the fifth day of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an application for immediate accession to the European Union under a simplified procedure. Slovakia initiated such an application for Ukraine, and the decision to accelerate membership was supported by a number of EU countries, including Hungary.
On 1 March 2022, the European Parliament recommended that Ukraine be granted candidate status for accession to the European Union.