European Commission Recommends Giving Ukraine EU Candidate Status

The European Commission has recommended granting Ukraine candidate member state status, the commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Friday.

“Let me start with Ukraine. The commission recommends to the [European] Council, first, that Ukraine is given European perspective and, second, that Ukraine is given candidate status. This is, of course, on the understanding that the country will carry out a number of further important reforms,” she said.

Ukraine deserves European perspective, the commission head added, stressing that important work remains to be done by Kiev in the field of the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

“We know that much more needs to be done, for example, on the issue of the rule of law […]. It is necessary to focus on accelerating the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court, and members of the Supreme Council of Justice,” she emphasised.

Grigory Karasin, chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s committee on international affairs, has told Sputnik that although Moscow is “now busy with its domestic agenda”, it would keep a watchful eye on the process of Ukraine being granted the status of a candidate member of the EU and the steps that may follow.

"You have to understand that since Ukraine is being so actively dragged into becoming a candidate, there is something behind all this,” Karasin pointed out.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, underscored that the European Commission’s decision to grant an EU candidate member state status to Ukraine requires increased attention from Moscow.

“It requires our increased attention, because we all know about the intensification of discussions in Europe on the subject of strengthening the military and security component of the European Union, Peskov told reporters when asked about how Moscow assesses Kiev's prospects for joining the bloc.

In April, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev made it clear that Moscow is not against Ukraine's accession to the EU, but that “the experience of the recent years with Montenegro and Macedonia shows that” joining the bloc “can be done only through NATO”.

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“These are interdependent organisations”, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that the US “plays a leading role in the relations between NATO and the EU" and that "Brussels also takes its orders from Washington," even though it likes to deny this.

“Now Ukraine wants to join the EU again. More so than before... Our position is known to Ukrainians: if there is a desire to join, go ahead if you are invited,” Medvedev noted, adding that currently it does not seem possible without NATO approval.

On 28 February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a formal request for Ukraine to join the European Union after Russia launched a special military operation there on 24 February, in response to a request by the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations.