2023-06-22 17:51:10
The European Commission estimated on Wednesday, in an interim assessment, that Ukraine had made progress to be able to start accession negotiations with the EU, but underlined that several criteria were not yet met, it was said. learned from diplomatic sources.
According to the oral report presented in Brussels to the ambassadors of the 27 member countries by the Commissioner for Enlargement, the Hungarian Oliver Varhelyi, Ukraine has fulfilled two of the seven conditions imposed by the EU to launch accession negotiations.
“Two are met and five are at some level of progress,” one diplomat summed up.
The EU granted Ukraine candidate status in a highly symbolic gesture last June, following Russia’s invasion.
Seven Benchmarks
The Commission has set seven benchmarks for Kyiv as conditions for starting accession negotiations, including strengthening the fight once morest widespread corruption and judicial reforms.
“One should not jump to conclusions,” said one diplomat. “It’s not conclusive at this point. The real report will be made in October,” he insisted.
The two conditions met are the reduction of political influence in the media and the reforms of the judicial system, the European diplomats specified.
Fight once morest corruption
But the fight once morest corruption remains a problem, diplomats acknowledged following the Commission’s presentation. “Zelensky has warned that he cannot fight once morest Russia and the oligarchs at the same time,” one of them pointed out.
Kyiv is pushing for membership talks to begin as early as this year, but opening negotiations requires the approval of all 27 EU member states.
While Poland and the Baltic States support Kiev’s application for membership, some, such as Germany and the Netherlands, do not wish to rush the process.
“One can wonder if it is possible to obtain lasting results in four months, if it is not already the case today”, commented a dubious diplomat.
Annoyance
Moreover, Hungary and Greece do not hide their annoyance with the blacklist established by the Ukrainian authorities to sanction companies and people accused of helping the Russian war effort.
Budapest denounced “the increasingly hostile attitude of Ukraine towards Hungary” following the inscription deemed “unjustifiable” of the Hungarian bank OTP on this list and Athens delayed the adoption of the 11th European sanctions package once morest Russia to protest once morest the registration of Greek shipowners, a member state representative said on Wednesday.
Moldova, which obtained candidate status at the same time as Ukraine, has fulfilled only three of the nine conditions set for the opening of accession negotiations. And Georgia has met three of the 12 established criteria for candidate status, diplomats said.
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