Macron, Draghi, and Scholz plan to make a joint trip to Ukraine on Thursday
The leaders of France, Italy, and Germany plan to pay a joint visit to Ukraine on Thursday and meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky to show support for Ukraine and discuss its EU membership application.
It was reported by the Financial Times, citing high-ranking diplomats and officials in European capitals.
The visit was not officially confirmed, although reported by the media.
Emmanuel Macron, Mario Draghi, and Olaf Scholz are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to demonstrate strong Western solidarity with Ukraine.
The visit will happen on the eve of the European Commission's assessment of whether Ukraine should be granted EU candidate status.
According to officials familiar with the matter, the European Commission is likely to declare that Ukraine should become an EU candidate, provided it carries out a series of reforms to strengthen the rule of law and fight corruption.
However, EU countries still disagree on whether these reforms should be a precondition for Ukraine's potential candidacy or whether a checklist of reforms should be set before the next step on the road to the EU — the official opening of membership negotiations.
According to polls, the citizens of Germany, the Netherlands, and France support the candidate status for Ukraine.
Diplomats in Brussels say the trio's visit to Ukraine is necessary now to gather enough support for granting Ukraine a candidate status. But the list of reforms to be implemented, will be provided later.
The European Commission is expected to give its opinion on Ukraine's candidate status on June 17.
