We must prepare the country for the start of negotiations on EU membership as intensively and responsibly as we prepared the decision on candidacy, said President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Friday.

"The flag of the European Union in this hall is a symbol of the task of all of us, all branches of government, so that there are no pauses in our work. To make every decision that is necessary for the European path of Ukraine. And so that these are decisions that the Ukrainian society, Ukrainian families, citizens will feel positive from," he said.

Zelensky stressed that "obtaining EU membership is not only geopolitics, but also specific things, specific benefits that benefit the life of every family, company."

"Only recently we have introduced transport visa free regime and aviation visa free regime. We have received the most open access to the European market without duties and quotas. We have joined the joint European power grid, now we can export electrics to EU countries," he recalled.

"The next step is customs visa free regime, digital visa free regime, that is, Ukraine's accession to the Digital Europe program. We must speed up work on industrial visa-free travel and, of course, we must reach a decision on the abolition of roaming charges with EU countries on a permanent basis," the president also said.