A French source announced, on Wednesday 2 March, that Ukraine’s application to become a candidate for EU membership (see EUROPE 12901/1) would be discussed at the informal meeting of EU ministers scheduled for Thursday 3 and Friday 4 March in Arles.
“There will be no conclusions or decisions”, explained a source, adding that it was a matter of seeing the responsiveness of the Member States on the subject in order to be able to “give an answer to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has asked the question clearly”. “There are no options on the table, we will see what comes out of the debate”, the source added.
The discussion could be extended to the European perspective of Georgia and Moldova.
Asked about a possible fast-track accession path for Ukraine, as requested by Mr Zelensky, the source said that the discussion would not take place between ministers, but would be discussed at the level of heads of state or government.
The source also recalled that the Western Balkans were candidates as well for membership and that this should be taken into consideration. “There is no will to be blind to the situation of one or the other”, the source explained. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Solenn Paulic)