ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2023) Ukraine has fulfilled all seven recommendations of the European Commission for an EU candidate country and is expecting an interim report from European authorities by�late spring, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Thursday.
"Ukraine has fulfilled all seven recommendations of the European Commission at the candidate stage. We are carrying out all the reforms for EU accession. We have created an anti-corruption structure, 27,000 of our regulations comply with the European legislation," Shmyhal told a press conference in Rome.
Ukraine will be ready to continue negotiations at the end of this year, the prime minister noted.
"We expect that the European Commission will announce interim results on the implementation of these recommendations by the end of spring. In the fall, we expect that the final report will open the next door for us," Shmyhal added.
Obtaining candidate status is only the beginning of a long road to EU accession. Turkey has been in candidate status since 1999, North Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010 and Serbia since 2012. The last state to join the EU so far was Croatia in 2013, a process that took 10 years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an application for Ukraine's accession to the EU on February 28, 2022, four days after Russia launched its special military operation. On June 23, EU heads of state approved candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova. To start accession talks, the countries need to fulfill a number of conditions, including wide-ranging reforms.
The seven recommendations include strengthening the fight against corruption; reforming the Constitutional Court; continuing judicial reform; implementing an anti-oligarchic law; enhancing the effectiveness of the anti-money laundering law; bringing media law in line with European one and changing the legislation on national minorities.�
