EU countries reach consensus on membership candidate status for Ukraine

European Union countries reached a political consensus on Tuesday to grant Ukraine membership candidate status at the EU summit on June 23-24, said France’s secretary of state for European affairs.

"EU countries have reached a broad consensus, even a full political consensus on granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership in the EU," Clement Beaune told a news conference following a meeting of the Council of the European Union.

Today’s discussions yielded total consensus on the possibility to consider the membership candidate bids, especially from Ukraine, in the shortest time, Beaune said, also referring to Moldova and Georgia’s European aspirations.

The EU should grant Ukraine candidate status to boost morale of Ukrainians, although "many different steps" must be taken for genuine entry into the bloc, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said earlier on Tuesday.