Sweden Ready To Support Granting Ukraine Candidate Status For EU Accession

Sweden supports granting EU candidate status for Ukraine as well as for Moldova.

This was stated by Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, commenting on the Friday meeting of the European Commission, European Pravda writes.

"We say yes to candidate country status for both Ukraine and Moldova. Conditions will then follow before negotiations can begin," Linde said.

The minister spoke before the meeting of the European Commission, which made a positive decision for Ukraine. Linde made it clear that the "green light" from Sweden will be if the European Commission gives a recommendation. The minister stressed that it may take "many years" for Ukraine to become a member of the EU.

"We need to meet the requirements of democracy, rule of law, economic principles, non-corruption," Linde added.

It is noted that until recently Sweden and Denmark were the most "problematic" in terms of supporting the granting of candidate status to Ukraine. They actively provide assistance to Kyiv during the aggression of the Russian Federation, they help with weapons, but they are not always satisfied with how Kyiv is implementing the most difficult of the reforms - anti-corruption.

As Ukrainian News Agency reported, according to von der Leyen, Ukraine has already implemented 70% of the necessary reforms, according to the association with the EU. In its conclusion, the European Commission recommends granting Ukraine candidate status, but with conditions.

In addition, Denmark is ready to support granting Ukraine the status of an EU candidate.