Ukraine has completed the first part of an application for EU membership, less than a week after receiving it from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the country’s European integration minister, Olga Stefanishina, announced on Monday.
Von der Leyen has promised to hasten Kiev’s accession to the bloc, but some of its 27 members are hesitant.
“The 1st part of the questionnaire for EU membership has been sent to the European Commission,” Stefanishina wrote on Twitter. “As was promised by President Zelensky, Ukraine completed the document in one week! Have already started working on the 2nd part.”
Later in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the questionnaire to the head of the EU’s delegation to Ukraine, Estonian diplomat Matti Maasikas.
“I want to thank you for this important meeting. Today is one of the stages for our country to join the European Union, the aspiration that our people are striving for and fighting for,” Zelensky told Maasikas.
Von der Leyen presented the document to Zelensky whilst on a visit to Kiev last week. Completing the form is the first step toward a country formally becoming a candidate for membership, and a decision on candidate status in itself can take years, requiring an investigation by the European Commission and the unanimous consent of every EU member state.