EU leaders will decide later this month whether to welcome Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia as candidate states for membership of the bloc, after Russia’s invasion prompted the three former Soviet republics to submit emergency applications in the first weeks of the war.
As we’ve been reporting, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said that a decision on whether Ukraine should be given candidate status to join the EU will be finalised “by the end of next week”.
Candidate status is an important next step in the long process to become part of the bloc. Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are all candidate countries.
Ukraine’s prospects look promising, and so do Moldova’s. But Georgia was slapped with a scathing European Parliament resolution on Thursday, described by one MEP as the last “wake-up call” to its government.
Ukraine has led the way in arguing that joining the EU has become a geopolitical necessity, although the three states are known as the Association Trio for their co-operation with the EU on everything from political reforms to free trade.