After Ukraine on Friday 8 April, Georgia and Moldova received their questionnaires for their accession to the European Union on Monday 11 April. On the basis of this questionnaire, the Commission will have to prepare its opinion on the readiness of these countries for EU membership.
“We are ready to go very fast. So the faster you fill it out, the faster we will be able to provide the opinion to the European Council”, Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi alerted the Moldovan and Georgian Foreign Ministers.
Moldovan minister Nicu Popescu hoped that his country would respond to the questionnaire “within a few weeks” and will have more clarity on the next steps “in the next few months, probably in June”. He said that his country had set up an inter-institutional working group to answer the questionnaire. He added that the procedure to which his country would be subject was “slightly different” from that to which the Western Balkan countries were subject, without giving details.
Earlier in the day, on their arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council, Lithuanian Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and Romanian Minister Bogdan Aurescu had stressed that their countries were prepared to help. “We will discuss how we can help them from a technical point of view”, Aurescu promised, while Landsbergis explained that his country would share its experience.
On Friday in Kyiv, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the Commission was at Ukraine’s disposal “24 hours a day, 7 days a week” to work on the questionnaire (see EUROPE 12929/2).
“Thanks to our Association Agreement, Ukraine is already closely aligned with our Union. So we will speed up this process as much as we can, while making sure that all the conditions are met”, she added.
Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have signed an association agreement with the EU. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)