The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, signed a document on Monday with which formally requests the country’s accession to the European Unionthe start of a process that Kiev has asked to speed up in response to the Russian invasion, according to the Ukrinform news agency.
The Ukrainian president maintains constant contact with European leaders and for this reason in Brussels they are aware that the formal request for accession is in “final phase of preparation” so it is expected to arrive “imminently”, according to European sources.
The reception of a formal request would activate the processes established by the European Treaties to examine a candidacy, a process open, according to article 49 of the EU Treaty, to any European country that respect the fundamental values of the EU and commit to promoting them.
The request must be addressed to the Council, which, unanimously, must be the one to take the step of requesting an opinion on the candidacy from the European Commission before the final decision returns to the Twenty-seven. In any case, the sources consulted point out the willingness to evaluate a possible request from Ukraine “very quickly” in the Council to decide whether it is appropriate to ask the Community Executive an “urgent opinion” on the specific case.
According to EU rules, once a request for accession reaches the Council of the EU, the current presidency, in this case France, should inform the rest of the partners and notify the request also to the European Parliament and the national parliaments. Next, the foreign affairs ministers would be in charge of evaluating the case and deciding whether to request the opinion of Brussels.
In the case of the Commission’s opinion, it is a phase that usually requires a period of between fifteen and eighteen months, but European sources point out that it is not a closed period and can be elongated or “significantly shorter” based on “political” considerations.
Source: Lasexta
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