According to a senior EU official, the 27 leaders of the countries of the European Union are expected to support EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova at a two-day summit to be held in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
The EU official told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday: “I have seen no problem in granting candidate status to Ukraine”, praising the work of European Council President Charles Michel.
But the senior official added: “I would like to tell you that ‘it’s a foregone conclusion’ and ‘it’s easy'”, but after years of working within the EU, the institutions did not want to be guided by a final answer.”
“So I’m confident, but I’m also cautious,” the official said.
Separately, a senior diplomat from an EU country said that “Ukraine and the Commission have done a great job” in preparing Ukraine’s bid to start the long process of accession to the EU, and the diplomat’s country was ” happy with the report that was on the table.”
The diplomat tempered expectations, saying that granting candidate status to Ukraine “does not mean that we can make progress by sidelining everything that is normally on the table. That’s not the case, and I don’t think that’s fair.”
When asked about a timetable for Ukraine to become a full-fledged EU member state, the diplomat said: “I think Ukraine is the only one who can set a timetable, because Ukraine needs to adapt, transform, reform and be under the current circumstances, we need to understand that the priorities lie elsewhere.”
