European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who recently offered Ukraine a fast-track toward European Union membership..
Her remarks on CNN "State of the Union" Sunday came after von der Leyen recently visited Kyiv. The EU chief presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a questionnaire, the responses to which will form the basis of an opinion to be passed on to the European Council this summer.
Speaking at a joint press conference, von der Leyen said the questionnaire "is where your path toward the European Union begins," adding that this step "will not be, as usual, a matter of years, but rather a matter of weeks."
"This is normally a process over years, indeed. And, yesterday, we did an important step forward," the EU chief continued. "That is this questionnaire, which forms the basis for the information we have to then form an opinion whether I can, as a commission president, recommend the candidate status to the so-called council. So, it sounds technical, but it's a very important step forward."
"There's a lot of hope in Ukraine that they – they belong to our European family, without any question," she said.
"After this war, when Ukraine will be rebuilt, when we support Ukraine in reconstructing this country, this will be accompanied by reforms," she said. "So, it is an extraordinary way to shape the country and to go down the path toward the European Union. And we have done an important step yesterday."
