Ukraine deserves EU candidate status – head of European Parliament, President of Latvia.

Ukraine, as a country that shares the fundamental values and principles on which the European Union is built on and fights for them, deserves to be granted the status of an EU candidate, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola has said.

"Why would we spend once again decades hiding behind legalities when it is just simply a question of political will," she said Wednesday at the Pinchuk Foundation's Ukraine Breakfast in Davos, which hosts the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The President of Latvia, Egils Levits, also supported the position that granting Ukraine the status of an EU candidate is a political decision, and the EU should do it.

"If we should be serious and take our principles seriously, then, of course, there is no way to say that Ukraine also belongs to Europe and then technical issue how to do it... The candidate status is the starting point and we should give the candidate status to Ukraine. I think it's realistic, and it is possible, and it is also in our interests," he said.

As reported, earlier the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte assessed the chances of Ukraine to soon become a candidate for EU membership as "not very high." At the same time, Kyiv expects that this status will be granted as early as June this year.

Tags: #ukraine #eu