European Commission to discuss Ukraine's application for EU membership on June 17

The European Commission will begin the discussion on Ukraine's application to join the European Union on June 13 and make the final assessment on June 17. The EU representative Eric Mamer in a press conference made the announcement regarding European Commission's decision to hold talks on Ukraine's EU bid, Babel reported. Mamer announced that European Commissioners on Monday, June 13, will start discussing the latest applications for EU membership from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. 

According to Mamer, after the European Commissioners make the final assessment on June 17, the European Commission will give their recommendations to the EU member states. The EU member states will then make the decision about whether they would give these countries the status of candidate for accession to the bloc at the summit scheduled on June 23-24. Earlier on 8 June, the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament called on European Parliament to name Ukraine as a candidate for EU membership. Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, on Wednesday. 8 June, said that refusal of the EU would give an indication to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “he can be totally going forward without any punishment," according to AP. Addressing the EU Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk urged the EU to make every effort that is possible on June 24 and called it a "watershed and important day" for Ukraine and its victory. 

EU Parliament will continue to support Ukraine: Metsola 

Meanwhile, the European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said that the EU Parliament will continue to support Ukraine as they apply for EU candidate status. She stressed that they need to send a clear message that "Ukraine's place is within our European family." Notably, 27 bloc nations have been supporting Ukraine against the Russian military offensive by adopting sanctions against Kremlin. However, the leaders have a different point of view on how quickly the EU should make the decision to include Ukraine as a member in the bloc. It is pertinent to note here that all the bloc nations need to agree to include a new member in the EU. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian President in a video address on 8 June, expressed gratitude to Polish President Andrzej Duda for his visit to European countries to convince bloc nations to support Ukraine's European Union bid. He further stated that Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova was due to accompany Andrzej Duda, however, her trip was cancelled as she tested positive for COVID-19. 

Image: AP