The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced this Saturday that she has traveled to kyiv, where she will meet with the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, a few days before the Community Executive publishes its evaluation of the request for Ukraine to become a candidate country to join the European Union.
“It is good to be back in kyiv. With President Zelensky we will talk about the joint work necessary for reconstruction and the progress that Ukraine has made on its European path,” the Commission president wrote on her Twitter account about the visit, that had not been announced.
“I have returned to kyiv to meet with President Volodimir Zelenski and Prime Minister (Denys) Chmygal. We will take stock of the joint work necessary for the reconstruction and Ukraine’s progress towards Europe,” she told the journalists who accompanied her in his visit, including the AFP. “This will feed into our assessment, which we will present shortly,” she added.
The European Commission plans to present this month its evaluation report on Ukraine’s application to become a candidate country to join the European Union, a process that can take years and in this case has been reduced to just a few months since kyiv submitted the request a few days after the start of the invasion by Russia.
Following that report, it is the European Council (the EU Heads of State and Government) who must unanimously agree to give this country candidate status, a prospect to which some Member States are still reluctant.
It is the second time that Von der Leyen has traveled to kyiv since the beginning of the war; The first was on April 8 with the High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, with whom he also visited the town of Bucha a few days after the massacres of civilians by the Russian army were revealed. during the occupation.
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