EU agrees to asses Ukraine which will accelerate talks on integration

One of the results of the Ukraine-EU Summit is the Brussels agreement to give Ukraine an interim assessment on its progress in fulfilling the criteria it received along with the EU candidate status.

Source: Final summit document, a translated version with comments posted by European Pravda

Earlier, the EU insisted that the assessment will not be given to Ukraine until autumn of 2023. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, stated this, explaining that in the spring the commission will only prepare an "oral report for the EU member states".

Thus, Ukraine cannot correct its mistakes on its way to fulfilment of the seven criteria without an official EU assessment document of its progress and descriptions of the problems. This, in turn, may hinder the negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership being carried out in 2023. Meanwhile, 2024 will be the year of the EU formation change.

Yet, the decision of the Summit solves this issue: the EU agreed to put the oral report on paper and hand the official document over to Ukraine.

"We take note of the Commission’s intention to provide an update in spring 2023 which will also be conveyed to Ukraine through the appropriate channels," it is stated in the document.

Volodymyr Zeleskyy, President of Ukraine, also commented on the expectations concerning Ukraine's EU membership negotiations.

"Starting negotiations on EU membership in 2023 is our goal. Not even a goal but a primary task," emphasised the president.

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