President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola in Lviv. This was stated on March 4 by his press service on Telegram.
He thanked Metsola for supporting Ukraine, noting that the European Parliament adopted a resolution on support and the need to grant the country the status of a candidate for EU membership.
“Ukraine seeks to complete the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission as soon as possible and start negotiations on joining the European Union this year,” he said.
Earlier, on February 28, Zelensky called for the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU in 2023. He recalled that last year Ukraine applied for membership in the European Union and received candidate status.
Earlier, on February 24, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal, in an interview with the El Confidential newspaper, expressed confidence that Ukraine would join the European Union in the next two years, as it completes the implementation of the recommendations of the European Commission.
On February 19, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that Ukraine had already become a member of the European family, it only remained to “institutionalize this decision.”
Earlier, on February 13, the Financial Times newspaper pointed to the dissatisfaction of a number of EU countries because of Ukraine’s expectation of an early entry into its composition. The publication noted that some EU governments have privately criticized Ukrainian politicians for expecting a quick completion of the process, and the leadership of the union for encouraging these hopes.
Zelensky signed an application for the country’s accession to the EU on February 28, 2022. In April, Kyiv submitted to the European Union the completed second part of the questionnaire for obtaining the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union, and in June the European Council agreed on the status of candidates for Ukraine and Moldova.
