European Union: Moldova, Ukraine Move Toward EU Candidate Country Status

The European Commission has approved granting EU candidate country status to Moldova and Ukraine, and granting potential candidate status to Georgia. The Council of the European Union must now review the applications and unanimously confirm candidacy. As a reminder, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey are also EU candidate countries. The European Parliament recently called on the European Council to proceed to the next phase of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia. Of the other EU candidate Member States, Montenegro and Serbia are most advanced in accession negotiations; negotiations with Turkey have not progressed recently. Other potential candidates include Kosovo (whose independence is not unanimously recognised) and Bosnia and Herzegovina.