On Friday, April 8, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell will visit Kyiv to formalize the procedure for granting Ukraine the status of a candidate member of the EU.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this in an interview as part of the national telethon, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Today we are expecting the visit of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, who will bring a questionnaire, which we will fill out very quickly and this will actually be that bureaucratic document that will allow us to pass and receive a candidate for membership in the European Union," he said.
Shmyhal stressed that granting Ukraine a candidate status for EU membership would be a significant step towards joining the European Union, which other countries have been going for years, some decades, and Ukraine has passed in just a month.
According to him, after filling out the questionnaire, it will take about a month more to complete the bureaucratic procedure for granting Ukraine candidate status.
"These are important breakthrough issues. We understand that Europe gives us good signals and is waiting for us in the European Union," Shmyhal said.
He noted that Ukraine has already joined the EU aviation space and became a member of the "energy European Union," fully synchronizing with the ENTSO-E energy grid of continental Europe.
Further, Ukraine plans to move rapidly towards a common customs union of the EU, to common transit traffic, to a joint agreement on the conformity of samples of industrial products.
Earlier, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Ihor Zhovkva said on Facebook that during the visit of von der Leyen and Borrell to Kyiv, it is also planned to discuss new sanctions that will have a real and immediate impact on Russia; significant financial support, including through the Solidarity Trust Fund; humanitarian aid and an accelerated procedure for Ukraine's accession to the EU. He noted that the European Commission took several months to prepare a conclusion on Ukraine's compliance with the Copenhagen criteria in order to grant candidate status.
During their visit to Kyiv, von der Leyen and Borrell also plan to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the StandUpForUkraine pledging event in Warsaw on Saturday.
As Ukrainian News Agency reported, on March 18, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the conclusion of the European Commission on Ukraine's application for EU membership would be prepared within a few months.
On February 28, Zelenskyy signed an application for Ukraine's membership of the EU.
On March 1, the European Parliament recommended granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership, after which the European Commission began to prepare a conclusion on membership.
Filling out the questionnaire of the European Commission is a necessary step for granting Ukraine candidate status.
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