Brussels-based correspondent Jack Parrock, reportedly having seen internal EU document, tweeted today that the EU Commission plans opinions on the membership applications by Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to be delivered to EU leaders at the June 24-25 summit.
According to Parrock, the Commission believes its opinions on the three candidate applications need to be drafted in May and adopted internally by the first half of June to discuss them at the June summit.
“Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova are also receiving three questionnaires imminently, one on political criteria, one on economic criteria, and one on regional cooperation,” Parrock added.
A week ago, Georgian Parliament Speaker Papuashvili said during his visit to Brussels that they received assurances on EU speeding up bureaucratic procedures to draft the application questionnaire.
“If the procedures lasted for months in other cases, now, most likely, they will be completed in a few weeks,” Speaker Papuashvili said on March 30.
On March 7, the heads of member state missions (the Council of the European Union) greenlighted the Commission to present an opinion on each of the membership applications sent by Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.
Carrying an important symbolic weight, the technical step marked the first move on complex, years-long path to EU membership.
Georgia and Moldova submitted formal applications to join the 27-member-bloc on March 3. The expedited moves followed the suit of Ukraine, that is fighting Russia’s bloody invasion since February 24.
Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova are EU-associated countries, that are also part of the bloc’s Eastern Partnership initiative. The three countries established the Associated Trio format in May 2021, seeking closer relations to Brussels.
The Georgian authorities originally planned to submit membership bid in 2024.
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