Major EU states against granting Ukraine candidate status – Italy — RT World News

Solely Rome helps giving Ukraine candidate standing within the European Union, which is simply not within the playing cards proper now, with all the opposite main EU members opposed, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi revealed on Tuesday. EU officers will attempt to draft a fast-track proposal for the way Kiev may be a part of someday in June, he added.

“Virtually all the foremost EU member international locations are towards giving Ukraine candidate standing – besides Italy,” Draghi stated at a press convention in Brussels, answering a query from the Italian information company ANSA. “Candidate standing is at the moment not predictable because of the opposition of those international locations.”

Draghi added that he may “think about” that the European Fee would current a plan to fast-track Ukraine’s utility for future candidate standing at a gathering in June. 

He famous that almost all international locations await years to turn into candidates, not to mention for EU membership itself, and that the EU has proposed numerous different preparations to “sweeten the tablet,” however none of them had been acceptable to the federal government in Kiev.

Ukraine submitted its utility for EU membership on February 28, 4 days after the outbreak of hostilities with Russia. The European Council “acknowledged the European aspirations and the European alternative of Ukraine” in March, and stated they’d “swiftly” handed Kiev’s paperwork to the European Fee.

In early Might, Russia introduced that Ukraine’s membership within the EU could be simply as unacceptable for Moscow as Kiev becoming a member of NATO. 

Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the phrases of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to provide the breakaway areas particular standing inside the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine formally declare itself a impartial nation that can by no means be a part of the US-led NATO army bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was utterly unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the 2 republics by drive.