COPENHAGEN: EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced Friday that "The EU parliament stands firmly behind Ukraine's bid to receive EU candidate status."
Her statement came as Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy told the 2022 Copenhagen Democracy Summit by video-link that "The first thing is to finally remove this grey zone."
Zelensky stated that he was unsure why some EU members would hesitate about letting Ukraine come aboard, and cutting ties with Russia.
In his video address, he said "Why, if the polls show that 71 percent of Europeans consider Ukraine as part of the European family, are there still political skeptics who hesitate to allow us to join the European Union?"
Among the EU's 27 member nations, the Netherlands and Denmark have expressed reservations about what they consider to be Ukraine's readiness to be part of the EU. But Ukraine's bid is strongly supported by other members, especially those in central and eastern Europe.
The European Commission is slated to render its position on Ukraine's accession soon - ahead of a June 23-24 European Council summit at which EU leaders are expected to make a decision on the bid.
As Zelenskyy told the Copenhagen meeting, "In the coming weeks, the European Union could take a historic step that will prove that the words on the membership of the Ukrainian people in the European family are not in vain."
