Media: The European Commission recommends giving Ukraine the status of an EU candidate

Flags with EU symbols at the building of the European Commission in Brussels. File photoMOSCOW, June 17The European Commission on Friday recommends granting candidate status for EU membership to Ukraine and Moldova, Bloomberg reports, citing informed sources. EU. As expected, the European Commission also recommends granting candidate status to Georgia, but after certain conditions are met. On June 17, the European Commission must decide whether to grant candidate status for EU accession to Ukraine, as well as Moldova and Georgia. The decision to grant or deny candidate status will be made by the heads of state and government of the EU at the summit in Brussels on June 23-24, taking into account the recommendation of the European Commission.Lavrov joked about the possibility of granting Ukraine the status of an ERU candidate Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron, together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, visited Kyiv, where they met with Vladimir Zelensky. The French leader then said that the EU is now ready to grant Kyiv the status of a candidate for entry. On February 28, Volodymyr Zelensky signed an application for Ukraine's accession to the European Union. Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili signed similar documents on March 3. The leaders of the factions of the European Parliament last week called on the participants of the EU summit on June 23-24 to grant the status of a candidate country to Ukraine and Moldova, as well as to continue work on such a status for Georgia. In May, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said that Moscow's position on Kyiv's aspirations to join the European Union changed after European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said that «this war must be won on the battlefield.» Now, as the diplomat explained, Russia's position on this issue is more similar to the position on Ukraine's entry into NATO. The last country admitted to the European Union was Croatia in 2013. The process of considering her application lasted ten years.