Only one of the “core” EU countries was ready to grant candidate status to Ukraine

At a press conference, the Italian prime minister said that all the “core states” of the EU are against granting Ukraine candidate status.

“Almost all the main EU countries object to the status of the candidate, I would say everything except Italy,” Draghi said.

Thus, the politician answered the question of whether Ukraine will become a candidate after the results of the June meeting of the Council of Europe. At the same time, the politician believes that Ukraine can be offered a “fast track” to the European Union. According to Mario Draghi, the European Commission agrees to consider Ukraine’s membership under an accelerated procedure.

“There is currently no such path, but it can be proposed and the European Commission will prepare a report. [по этому поводу]’ said the prime minister.

Earlier it was known that Greece and Cyprus were against the accelerated accession of Ukraine to the EU. Euractiv sources mentioned this. According to them, both countries are dissatisfied with the Western Balkan countries, which have made great strides towards joining the European Union, but do not accept them in a special way.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin also said it “makes no sense” to change the procedure for Ukraine. At the same time, he stated that he is not opposed to granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership.

Kyiv made an official application to the EU on February 28. On April 8, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen submitted a questionnaire to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to obtain EU candidate status. One part of the survey includes political and economic criteria, while the second part includes an assessment of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with the legal regulations of the European Union.

Based on the survey, the European Commission can make recommendations to the Council of Europe on Ukraine’s future. Namely, recommending the granting of candidate status to Ukraine and starting EU accession negotiations. The European Council meeting will be held on 23-24 June.

On 5 May, the European Parliament issued a resolution calling on the EU to grant candidate status to Ukraine. 637 deputies voted ‘in favor’, 13 ‘against’ and 26 abstained. However, for Ukraine to receive candidate status for EU membership, this decision must be unanimously approved by all union states.

In early May, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Ukraine’s EU membership would take “decades”, even if the country now receives candidate status.

Alternatively, Macron proposed the creation of a new “European political community” for non-EU countries, including Ukraine and the UK, to engage in the “essence of European values”.

“Join him. [сообществу] will not predetermine future EU membership. And it won’t be closed to those who have it [ЕС] left,” said the French leader.

Macron’s idea was supported by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “I want to say directly that this is a very interesting proposal to solve the serious problems we face,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on May 10 that Ukraine wants to receive the status of a full-fledged country, not some kind of “proxy”. The head of the Foreign Ministry believes that previously Europe’s “strategic uncertainty” on this issue has only “encouraged Putin”.

“We don’t need proxies for EU candidate status, who take a second-class attitude towards Ukraine and hurt the feelings of Ukrainians,” he said.