Kyiv expects ‘positive’ EU report on membership bid: Ukraine minister

Ukraine expects a “positive” European Union appraisal of its progress on the path towards eventual EU membership in a report due this week, a senior government minister said on Monday, adding that Kyiv had carried out all the reforms required of it.

Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna was speaking in an interview with Reuters before the executive EU Commission publishes the report on Wednesday. Kyiv hopes it will recommend that EU leaders decide in December to open formal accession talks with Ukraine.

“I would say that the assessment would definitely be positive because we have been in permanent contact with the European Commission, discussing the steps and negotiating the steps we managed to implement,” Stefanishyna said.

The Commission said in June that Ukraine had met two out of seven conditions the EU had set to start the membership talks.

“I think for the purposes of the assessment when it comes to the seven steps, everything which has been agreed has been implemented and done,” Stefanishyna said.

Membership talks take years as candidates must meet extensive legal and economic criteria before joining. The EU, which now has 27 member states, is also unwilling to take in a country that is at war.