EU leaders competent to discuss request for Ukraine's admission to EU - European Commission

15:57, 03.03.2022 1 min read

The response to the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept his country into the European Union is within the competence of the heads of state and government of the EU, official representative of the European Commission (EC) Eric Mamer said.

"This is the issue that should be decided at the highest political level," the spokesman said at a briefing in Brussels.

He referred to the clarification of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who earlier in Bucharest, during a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, said that Zelensky's letter initiated a process of debate by the leaders of the EU countries, the subject of which would be Kyiv's request for entry.

Mamer did not respond to clarifying questions about the possibility of making an exception for Ukraine, bypassing the traditional procedure for admission to the EU or fast-tracked granting it candidate status, repeating several times that Zelensky, with his letter, launched the process of discussing this request by the member states of the union.