JAKARTA - The European Commission will recommend on Friday that the European Union designate Ukraine and Moldova as potential members, with Georgia required to meet certain conditions before being granted equal status, diplomats said.
While some European Union countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark, do not support more countries becoming EU candidates. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won the support of France, Germany, Italy and Romania on Thursday.
The Commission, the EU executive, is expected to make the proposal around 12:00 CET (10:00 GMT). That would pave the way for EU government leaders to sign it at a summit next Thursday and Friday in Brussels, Belgium, in what will be a morale boost for Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.
In their first visit to Kyiv since Russia invaded on February 24, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy and President Klaus Iohannis of Romania said Ukraine belongs to the "European family".
The status of the EU candidate, sought by Ukraine since 2014 when protests in Kyiv toppled the unpopular pro-Russian president, will be a milestone in its journey from a former Soviet republic to a developed economy in the world's biggest trading bloc.
However, the road to membership is expected to take years, requiring deep reforms to tackle endemic corruption.
Corruption was highlighted by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Kyiv on 11 June. According to watchdog Transparency International, Ukraine is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking 122 out of 180 countries.
It is known that the enlargement of the European Union as a policy has also stalled since 2018. EU member states cannot agree on whether to bring the other official candidates, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey into the bloc.
Separately, a senior diplomat involved in discussions about the expansion told Reuters Georgia, once one of the most pro-EU and pro-US states seeking to join the bloc, is moving away from candidate status.
"Georgia has become polarized and its political system is not functioning," the diplomat said.
"Key politicians seem unwilling or unable to move forward with democratic reforms," he said.
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