Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Tuesday 31 May that granting candidate country status to Ukraine did not have the approval of the ‘big’ EU member states, apart from his own.
“Candidate country status is objected to by almost all the major EU countries, if not all, except Italy”, he explained after the EU summit. “Moving forward with candidate country status at this time is not something that can be expected, because of the opposition of these countries”, he added.
According to the Italian, the concepts of belonging to the “European family” developed in recent months have been “to substitute the status of candidate country by sweetening the pill”.
On 9 May in Strasbourg, French President Emmanuel Macron launched the idea of a European geopolitical community, taken up by the President of the European Council (see EUROPE 12955/24), bringing together third European countries that share fundamental European values and cooperate in concrete sectoral projects.
According to Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, “Ukraine needs to get clear conditions on how to move towards candidate status”. While her country supports Moldova and Georgia, “they are not there yet”, she said.
The European Commission is due to publish its opinions on the EU membership applications of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in the coming weeks. The June European Council should decide whether or not to grant them candidate status. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)