From June 23 to 24, leaders of EU member states will hold a summit to discuss whether to grant Ukraine candidate country status. On the 19th local time, Ukrainian President Zelensky said that this week will be a "historic week."
Ukrainian President Zelensky: The 20th will start a historic week. This week we will receive a reply from the EU on whether to grant us candidate country status.
On the 17th local time, the European Commission stated that it recommended granting Ukraine and Moldova EU candidate country status. Leaders of EU member states will discuss the proposal at a summit on June 23-24.
How far is it from an EU member state?
What does it mean to obtain EU candidate country status? Which countries are currently included as EU candidate countries? How far is it from an EU candidate country to an EU member state?
was recommended by the European Commission and unanimously approved by 27 member states. The applicant country can obtain EU candidate country status. However, becoming a candidate country does not mean that it can automatically become an EU member state, and subsequent procedures such as EU accession negotiations are required. This link is another big challenge, and all member states need to agree before negotiations can begin. In reality, this process usually doesn't go smoothly. For example, North Macedonia has long been an EU candidate country, but accession negotiations have been delayed due to Bulgaria's obstruction.
The process of joining the EU is very complicated. To put it simply, it can be divided into four links: first, submitting an application; second, obtaining candidate country status; third, starting negotiations; and fourth, approval. After Croatia joined the EU in July 2013, no new country has joined the EU in nearly a decade.
Which countries are currently included as EU candidate countries?
The current EU candidate countries include Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. These five countries have been waiting for many years and have yet to become EU members. Among them, Turkey submitted its application as early as 1987 and became a candidate country in 1999. The EU accession negotiations began in 2005, but have not yet been completed. Montenegro and Serbia started EU accession negotiations in 2012 and 2014 respectively. How long did it take for
to join the EU?
Generally speaking, it takes several years to join the EU, but the time it takes for each country to join the EU varies. Statistics show that the fastest countries to join the EU were Austria, Sweden and Finland during the EU expansion in 1995, which took three to five years. It took Hungary, Poland, Croatia and other countries more than ten years from applying to formally joining the EU.
Source: International Online
