Ukraine meets all necessary criteria for EU candidate status – Zelensky

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his video address to the European Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

On April 8, 2022, when the fifth sanctions package was approved, Ukraine also received a questionnaire from the European Union.

“And we have already answered it over this time. We have already provided these answers to the European Commission. Unprecedentedly fast, and most importantly – in a coordinated manner. We expect the same reaction from Europe. And we reject any attempt to find an alternative that no one needs, or to find something else for Ukraine. We need to be like you. We want Ukraine to receive candidate status,” Zelensky told.

The President of Ukraine expressed hope that those individual states that are still hesitant about Ukraine will change their minds and show the united strength.

“The strength of our nations who support our membership in the European Union by an unprecedented majority. The strength of your nations, the strength of your states and a united Europe,” Zelensky noted.

Zelensky thanked the European Commission for their unity, ability to be united, energetic, to have a future in a strong European Union.

“So that we depend on ourselves, not on some offices somewhere in Moscow. Right now you can determine whether everything that the European Union says about itself is true. About unity in diversity, common values and the same approach to all European democracies,” Zelensky said.

In his words, the European home will never be complete without Ukraine.

“There will never be a full-fledged European power without Ukraine. The very fact that Ukraine remained a fragment of Europe, somewhere outside your countries, contributed to the fact that Russia has developed an aggressive appetite to seize its neighbors,” the President of Ukraine stressed.

According to Zelensky, only the enlargement and strengthening of European unity can prevent the recurrence of what Europe experienced on February 24, in 2014, and even in 1968 or 1956.

“Therefore – at the strategic level – the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union for Ukraine should be approved already in June. I would like to express gratitude to the countries of the Western Balkans for their understanding and support for granting candidate status to our country. Thank you very much,” Zelensky emphasized.

A reminder that, on February 28, 2022, Ukraine submitted an application for EU membership and completed all the necessary procedures.

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

mk