Ayia Napa, Cyprus (EFE).- The presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa, respectively, met with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, and agreed to advance the negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union «without delay.»
According to a joint statement after their meeting in Nicosia on Thursday, the presidents praised Ukraine’s significant progress on the path to EU accession and called for the negotiation chapters to be opened without delay.
The leaders celebrated the unblocking of the 90 billion euro loan to support Ukraine, approved after Hungary lifted its veto. They also emphasized the importance of swiftly executing the loan to help Kyiv meet its urgent budgetary and defense needs for the war with Russia.
The EU leaders also highlighted Ukraine’s progress in terms of reforms «under challenging circumstances» and called for redoubling these efforts.
Upon arriving at the summit, Costa stressed that «two very important steps in order to strengthen Ukraine» had recently been taken: the unblocking of the loan and the new sanctions package against Russia, and urged them to prepare for the next stages.
«Now it’s time to look forward and to prepare the next step. And the next step is to open formally the first clusters of negotiations for the European accession of Ukraine to the EU,» he added.
The head of the community government explained that most of the preparatory work has already been completed, so the first tranche of aid can be transferred to Kyiv during the second quarter of 2026. This aid will finance the acquisition of drones.
Von der Leyen recalled her commitment to pushing through the loan «one way or another» during her visit to Ukraine in February and emphasized the adoption of the bloc’s new sanctions package against Moscow.
«The more Russia intensifies its aggression, the more the EU will intensify its support for Ukraine,» the president of the European Commission stated.
Before meeting with the European leaders, the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas insisted in statements to the press that «Ukraine is on the membership path» and underlined that the debate on how to accelerate this process is currently taking place.
«We are discussing today as well how to really accelerate that, giving that we have now new circumstances. So, maybe we can move with other things that have been red-lined or blocked before,» she noted.
Cyprus’s president Nikos Christodoulides said that his country’s rotating EU presidency is also ready to open the negotiation chapters for Ukraine’s accession.EFE
int/dgp/mcd
