Presidents of Poland and Slovakia to persuade EU to grant Ukraine candidate status

President of Poland Andrzej Duda and President of Slovakia Zuzana Čaputová will make a joint trip to Western Europe countries to persuade their leaders to support the idea of ​​granting Ukraine the EU country candidate status.

Čaputová and Duda announced this intention during a joint press conference in Bratislava on Wednesday, Ukrinform reports.

"I invited the President [Duda] to visit together some Western leaders who have a restrained position on granting Ukraine the status of candidate for EU membership. I believe that this is a very important step to support Ukraine and strengthen peace in Europe," Čaputová said.

In turn, Duda noted that he accepted Čaputová's offer to carry out such a mission, "especially where there are doubts about whether Ukraine can quickly gain a candidate status."

"We have no doubt that Ukrainians should get this status as soon as possible, and we will convince in various places so that Ukraine receives such support," the Polish leader said.

As reported, on May 9, Ukraine submitted the second part of the questionnaire to obtain the status of a candidate country for accession to the European Union.

On April 18, President Volodymyr Zelensky handed over the first part of the questionnaire to Matti Maasikas, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine. The questionnaire was submitted to the Ukrainian side personally by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Kyiv on April 8.

Zelensky signed the application for Ukraine's membership in the European Union on February 28, 2022.

Photo credit: facebook.com/andrzejduda

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