Prime Minister of Italy: “Almost all major EU countries are against granting Ukraine EU candidate status”

The head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, said that Ukraine would not be granted the status of an EU candidate at a meeting of the Council of the European Union in June, ANSA reported.

“Almost all major EU countries are against giving Ukraine the status of an EU candidate,” Draghi said at a press conference after the EU summit, stressing that Italy takes a different position on this issue. “We can request the status of a candidate, but now this is not expected due to the opposition of a number of countries,” he said.

However, Draghi said, Ukraine may be given the opportunity to prepare for EU accession "according to the accelerated procedure", which should be developed by the European Commission.

Earlier on May 31, the Council of the European Union published a comprehensive document on the situation in Ukraine. In particular, it stated: “The Council of the European Union takes note of the preparation of the opinions of the Commission on the application for EU membership of Ukraine, as well as the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. And will return to this issue at its June meeting.”

• Ukraine applied to join the European Union days after the start of the Russian invasion. Representatives of the European Commission and a number of EU member states, including Poland, assured Ukraine that its application would be considered as quickly as possible.
• In turn, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the process of Ukraine's accession to the EU would take many years, and put forward the idea of ​​creating a new "European political community", of which Ukraine would be a part. The Ukrainian authorities did not support this idea.