The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, handed over to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky a questionnaire for joining the EU.
“Here we have intersecting roads, your road to the EU begins, this is already a close path. I will give you this folder, this questionnaire, here are the questions, you need to answer them. These are formal recommendations,” Leyen said at a press conference with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday.
Leyen stressed that Ukraine’s place is in the European family.
“We are with you in your dreams of Europe. I want to say very clearly: Ukraine has a place in the European family. We heard this statement from all your people, and we give you a positive answer to your request. This folder contains a very important stage of your arrival to this family. This is the basis for our discussions in the coming weeks,” she said.
In addition, the President of the European Commission stressed that this process will not last for years, as usual, but only weeks.
“Whatever the result, Ukraine has a very big step to recover, because Russia is brazenly destroying the infrastructure of Ukraine, the city of Ukraine. Therefore, we want to work together with you to reform Ukraine, restore Ukraine. This will positively determine Ukraine’s path to the EU “, Leyen also said.
She explained how the process usually takes place. “After a country submits an application, the Council of the EU decides that the Commission should issue its conclusion. Usually, it takes years. In the case of Ukraine, we are talking about weeks. We handed over our questionnaire, it will be filled in negotiations between Ukraine and the EU. This will be a picture of what is happening in the country, whether the country meets the Copenhagen criteria,” she said.
According to Leyen, Ukraine and the EU have agreed and committed that they will work on this important step to get all the answers to these detailed questions.
“It’s not just one question that determines our conclusion, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. We want to work shoulder to shoulder in order to paint a picture of the country and the path to Europe. After that, the Commission issues its conclusion, which is recommendation to the Council of the EU and after that the Council is already deciding on the next steps,” she said.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer arrived in Kyiv on Saturday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Austria supports us in resisting the aggression of the Russian Federation. The visit of Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer to Kiev is an important manifestation of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” the president said in a Telegram channel.
Zelensky stressed that it is an important signal for us that Austria supports Ukraine and thanked for the help.
“And I think today we will talk in detail about this or that support. I would like to thank the people of your country separately, we saw how they took to the streets, on the squares, supported us in the struggle for our independence,” Zelensky said during the meeting .
In turn, the Austrian Chancellor noted that he expresses respect to the President, government and people of Ukraine.
“It is quite clear that we, Austria, are on your side and are trying to help wherever, whenever and wherever we can. And we will expand our assistance,” Nehammer stressed.
The EU Council obliged the Belarusian cargo carriers to withdraw all transport from the territory of the European Union by April 16 this year, this follows from the decision of the EU Council, published in the official journal of the European Union.
“In view of the gravity of the situation… it is appropriate to ban any road transport company established in Belarus from transporting goods by road across the territory of the Union, including in transit. Further action by the Union is required to implement this measure,” the document says.
The decision states that the ban, which came into force on April 8, for any road transport enterprises established in Belarus to transport goods by road across the EU, including in transit, “does not apply until April 16, 2022 for the transport of goods that began before April 9 April 2022, provided that the vehicle was already on the territory of the Union on April 9, 2022 or is in transit through the Union to return to Belarus.”
It is also reported that the ban does not apply to enterprises transporting mail, as well as to the supply of natural gas and oil to the EU, including refined products, as well as titanium, aluminum, copper, nickel, palladium and iron ore; pharmaceutical, medical, agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilizers; goods for humanitarian purposes, as well as transport of diplomatic and consular representations of the EU and Member States in Belarus, including delegations, embassies and missions, or international organizations in Belarus, enjoying immunities in accordance with international law.
The decision came into force on April 9.
On April 8, 41,000 people crossed the state border from Ukraine to the EU and Moldova, compared to 34,000 the day before, about two-thirds came to Poland, which is in line with the average values, the State Border Service said in a Facebook post on Friday.
According to the data of the Polish border service on Twitter, on April 8, 27.5 thousand people entered the country from Ukraine, which is 17% more than the day before, but over the first 7 hours of Saturday, the flow decreased by 4.4% to 6.5 thousand 16.6 thousand people left Poland for Ukraine on Friday.
According to the State Border Service, the flow of people entering Ukraine on April 8 increased slightly – from 25 thousand to 26 thousand, including citizens of Ukraine – from 22 thousand to 23 thousand.
All checkpoints on the western border (except “Dzvinkove” – from 8:00 to 20:00 and “Kosino” – from 8:00 to 24:00) operate around the clock.
The State Border Service also reported that over the past day the number of registered vehicles with humanitarian cargo increased to 660 from 550 the day before.
According to UNHCR data, at 13:00 on April 8, a total of 4.36 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war, of which 2.56 million went to Poland, 745.07 thousand to Romania and Moldova, and 431.89 to Hungary. thousand, Russia – 389.85 thousand, Slovakia – 310.99 thousand, Belarus – 19.1 thousand.
The diplomatic mission of the European Council in Ukraine is returning from Polish Rzeszow to Kyiv, the press service of the European External Action Service in Brussels (EEAS) reported.
“The European Union is resuming its diplomatic presence in Kyiv. After the Russian invasion on February 24, the European Union Delegation was temporarily relocated to the Polish city of Rzeszow. Today, during his visit to Kyiv, EU High Representative Josep Borrell announced that the work of the EU Delegation to Ukraine will now again be carried out from Kyiv “, – said in a message on the official website of the EU on Friday evening.
“With this visit, the European Union is returning back to Kyiv. I mean it literally: our head of our delegation has returned here so that we can work even more directly and closely with the Ukrainian authorities,” the EEAS press service quoted Borrell as saying.
EU Delegation Head Matti Maasikas accompanied High Representative Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on their joint visit to Kyiv on Friday. They stayed in the capital to reopen the premises of the representative office and assess the conditions for the gradual return of all employees of the representative office to Kyiv.
“During our stay in Kyiv, we saw firsthand the ability of the Ukrainian administration to ensure the effective and full functioning of state and government structures, despite very difficult circumstances. The return of our delegation to Kyiv will ensure even better interaction with the government and greater support from the Ukrainian people,” he added. Supreme Representative.
Some members of the Delegation will remain in Rzeszow and work from there.
As previously reported, this week the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry announced the return of the ambassador to Kyiv. The diplomats were also returned by the Latvian Foreign Ministry. At the end of March, Slovenia’s charge d’affaires arrived in the capital of Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the war unleashed by Russia, the Polish ambassador to Ukraine has always remained in Kyiv, who clarified to the media that in addition to him, the Turkish ambassador and the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine also worked in the Ukrainian capital.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is preparing comprehensive assistance packages and is completing logistical preparations for several of its nuclear safety and safeguards missions in Ukraine to deploy in the coming weeks, agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
“We are ready to transport spare parts and components to Ukraine and provide expertise and advice both on site and beyond. In the coming weeks, we will move our relief activities to a much faster speed,” said Grossi, quoted in IAEA daily statement on Ukraine on the website on Friday.
According to the report, the IAEA’s priority is to send safety and safeguards personnel to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as soon as possible.
It notes that the staff will conduct a radiological assessment, deliver safety-related equipment, and restore an online radiation monitoring system that stopped working during the occupation of the site by Russian troops in the five weeks prior to their March 31 withdrawal.
In order to implement plans to send the mission, the director general is consulting and closely coordinating with Ukraine on both the issue of IAEA assistance to its nuclear facilities and the issue of the schedule of expert missions, which are expected to begin later this month, the report said.
“To do this, we will also rely on the continued support of our partners,” Grossi said.
At the same time, the IAEA will concentrate on itself all issues of international technical assistance to Ukraine, and is now in close contact with many countries that have expressed interest in supporting its efforts to ensure the security of Ukrainian nuclear facilities.
The report notes that the G7 group of nonproliferation directors, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, in a statement released on Thursday, welcomed the efforts of the IAEA director general to ensure nuclear security in Ukraine.
