Ukraine awaits EU candidate status, Zelenskyy declares ‘historic week’ — as it happened
david waker
2 min read
Ukraine awaits EU candidate status, Zelenskyy declares 'historic week' — as it happened
At the meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Minister in Lukemburg Monday, Annalena Baerbock from Germany and French colleague Catherine Colonna asked member countries to approve the status of EU membership candidates for Ukraine and Moldova at the BLOC Summit which will come on June 23-24.
Baerbock said not to do so on this “historical moment” would be a “fatal decision.” Colonna urged the direct candidate status” for the two countries.
However, other countries, like Austria, are cool to the idea, on the grounds the blocks must not give the impression that the two are included in the “passing paths” while the countries in the West Balkan are forced to wait. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said his country hoped, “a clear signal to the east but also southeast of the European Union Summit.”
The Netherlands has hinted at the willingness to ignore the previous opposition and vote for the approval of the candidate status, although it shows that Ukraine, for example, still has a lot of “homework that must be done” regarding democracy and legal supremacy.
European Council President Charles Michel also asked member countries to expand the status of the nomination to the two states.
Unhcr’s goodwill ambassador Ben Stiller on Monday met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the trip to Poland and Ukraine. To mark World Refugee Day, Hollywood actor, director and screenwriter first traveled to the Poland border where he met with aid workers and refugee families. He then toured to the suburbs of Kyiv which was destroyed before meeting Zelenskyy.
Ukraine felt the support of the whole world,” Zelenskyy wrote on her Instagram account, along with a visit video. “And Ben Stiller’s visit once again confirms this. Your journey to Irpin and Makarov, a meeting with our people talking a lot. We appreciate that you are here at a difficult time for our country.”
Sociller, also wrote on Instagram, urged people to share “support for people who were forced to flee throughout the world. Everyone has the right to seek safety. Anyone, anywhere, anytime.”
The UN Refugee Agency said more than 100 million people are currently displaced by violence and global persecution, 8.3 million of them Ukraine fled from the Russian invasion.
