EU to be recommended to start accession talks with Ukraine, Moldova - report

The European Union’s executive arm is to recommend that accession negotiations be started with Ukraine and Moldova, who became the bloc’s candidate members last year, according to a report.

The European Commission is set to provide an update on EU accession statuses forUkraine, Moldova and Georgia in May, Radio Liberty's Europe editor Rikard Jozwiak tweeted on Monday.

"Proper enlargement report expected in October, so six months to go but working assumption right now [is]: recommendation to start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova and the candidate status for Georgia," Mr Jozwiak added.

Ukraine applied to join the EU in February 2022, five days since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with Moldova and Georgia following suit.

While the first two countries were given the candidate status at the EU summit in June 2022, it only recognised the ‘European perspective’ of Georgia.

Ukraine’s publicly declared aim is to start accession talks by the end of the year and to fulfil all the necessary conditions for EU membership in two years, something that experts believe is overambitious and rather unlikely.