Von der Leyen gave Zelensky a questionnaire for joining the European Union

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, handed over to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky a questionnaire, which is mandatory for granting the country the status of a candidate for joining the European Union, the EC reports.

It is an "important step towards EU membership", she said, and will be "a basis for discussion" in the coming months. Von der Leyen stressed that Ukraine shares the values ​​of the EU, so the process of accepting the country into the union will be accelerated as much as possible, while observing all the conditions.

“This is where your path to the European Union begins. We will be at your disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to work on this common basis. <...> Thanks to our association agreement, Ukraine is already closely connected with our Union,” said the head of the European Commission.

The EU promised to consider Ukraine's application for membership in the summer Politics

Earlier, Reuters reported that von der Leyen, during a visit to Kyiv, announced EU plans to consider Ukraine's application for membership in the union this summer, and the process will be accelerated. Her statement was supported by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who also expressed hope that the European Union would allocate another €500 million to Kyiv in the coming days.

Having received the questionnaire, Zelensky assured that Kyiv would fill out the document within a week, Ukrayinska Pravda wrote.

Zelensky signed an application for Ukraine's accession to the European Union on February 28 and asked for approval of this appeal "immediately." The statement of the European Council on the results of the summit in mid-March says that the European Commission was invited to present its opinion on the issue of Ukraine's accession. French President Emmanuel Macron then announced the impossibility of "opening a membership procedure with a country at war."

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In early April, following a meeting with the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, Zelensky said that there were "specifics" on the issue of accelerating the process of Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

The Kremlin called the topic of Ukraine's entry into the European Union an issue that "lies on a different plane" than the country's entry into NATO. “The EU is not a military-political bloc,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev doubted in early April that Kyiv would join the European Union without NATO membership. “There is one hitch: the experience of recent years with Montenegro and Macedonia shows that entry into the EU occurs only through NATO,” Medvedev said.