Von der Leyen visits Kyiv ahead of assessment of Ukraine’s EU candidacy

Brussels, Jun 11 (EFE).- The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced Saturday that she has traveled to Kyiv, where she will meet with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ahead of the EC’s publication of its assessment of Ukraine’s application to become a candidate to join the European Union.

“It’s good to be back in Kyiv,” von der Leyen said on Twitter.

“With President Zelenskyy, we will discuss the joint work needed for reconstruction and the progress Ukraine has made on its European path,” the EC president added.

This month, the EU’s executive branch is expected to present its assessment report on Ukraine’s application to become a candidate country to join the EU, a process that can normally take years which in this case has been reduced to just a few months since Kyiv submitted the application a few days after the start of the invasion by Russia.

Following that report, the European Council (the EU heads of state and government) will have to unanimously agree to grant the country candidate status, a prospect to which some member states are still reluctant.

It is the second time that Von der Leyen has traveled to Kyiv since the beginning of the war; the first was on April 8 together with the EU’s foreign and security policy chief, Josep Borrell, with whom she visited the town of Bucha a few days after the massacres of civilians by the Russian army during the occupation were uncovered. EFE

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