EU praises Ukraine for implementing two reforms critical to membership

The European Union agreed that Ukraine was making serious efforts to carry out the reforms necessary for the start of membership negotiations.

The summit's final document stated this, the European Pravda reports. In particular, the document contains a unilateral statement by the EU side:

"The EU acknowledged the considerable efforts that Ukraine demonstrated in the recent months towards meeting the objectives underpinning its candidate status for EU membership, welcomed Ukraine" reform efforts in such difficult times, and encouraged the country to continue on this path and to fulfill the conditions specified in the Commission's opinion on its membership application to advance towards future EU membership."

The statement means a list of seven criteria that Ukraine must fulfill to move forward to join the EU.

Congratulating Ukraine's reform efforts in such difficult times, he called on Kyiv to continue fulfilling the seven conditions for the state's advancement to future EU membership.

The document does not contain a detailed description of Ukraine's fulfillment of candidate criteria. As European Pravda reported, the EU agreed to provide Ukraine with such an assessment in the spring.

However, as an exception, the parties agreed to note two areas where they consider the reforms to be the most successful.

The joint statement of the summit reads:

"We welcomed progress in ensuring the independent and effective operation of the anti-corruption institutions and on alignment of Ukraine's media legislation with the EU audio-visual media services acquis."

The document also highlights two areas to which special attention is drawn: judicial reform and reform of the Constitutional Court. Also, it emphasizes the need to obtain an assessment of the Venice Commission regarding the law on national minorities.