A senior European official claims that the security guarantees already provided for in the EU Treaty will apply to Ukraine after it joins the Community.

So on Friday in Brussels, he answered a question from Interfax-Ukraine about the possibilities of applying Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty to Ukraine, which is already a candidate country for EU membership. Also in December, EU leaders are due to decide on the European Commission's recommendations to begin accession negotiations.

He explained that Article 42.7 of the Treaty applies only to EU members. And he does not want to prejudge the decision that will be taken at the end of the year by the European Council on the basis of the recent commission report, which proposes the start of negotiations. What the EU is doing is exactly what NATO is doing with Article 5. Article 5 applies only to the alliance, so we apply and implement this Article 42.7 only to EU member states, but if one day Ukraine becomes a full member, the provisions of the EU Treaty will be implemented in relation to it, he said.

In particular, Article 42.7 is the European Union's mutual assistance provision, which stipulates that, upon the request of the attacked Member State, all other Member States must provide retaliatory assistance. Thus, the article guarantees solidarity between member states in the event of armed aggression against any of them. This assistance may, for example, range from diplomatic support and technical or medical assistance, civil or military assistance.