EU Accelerates Accession Process for Four Leading Candidates Including Ukraine with Customized Roadmap

For Ukraine, Moldova, and Four Other Countries
Accession Guarantees and Tentative Timelines Presented

The European Union (EU) is preparing a customized roadmap featuring a phased accession plan for leading candidate countries, including Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Photo by AFP News Agency

On the 27th (local time), Politico, citing two senior officials of the European Commission, reported that the Commission is currently reviewing an EU accession roadmap for four countries: Ukraine, Montenegro, Moldova, and Albania.

These four countries are considered front-runners among the roughly ten candidate countries for EU membership. However, negotiations have been slow, and the actual timing of their accession remains uncertain.

The new roadmap is seen as part of efforts to accelerate the accession process for these candidate countries. Geopolitical changes—such as the threat from Russia, as well as intensifying competition with the United States and China—are cited as the driving factors.

A spokesperson for the European Commission stated, "The roadmap will present a path for completing accession negotiations, priorities and timelines for reforms, and the tasks required for implementation." The roadmap will also include requirements that each candidate country must meet, as well as obligations that existing EU member states must fulfill to approve the future accession process.

According to Politico, countries including Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Türkiye are still in the initial stage of the EU accession process and are therefore excluded from this roadmap.

Meanwhile, the European Commission plans to seek political support to speed up the accession process for new member states at a summit of the 27 EU member countries, which will be held in Brussels, Belgium for two days starting October 15.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.