The European Union is considering two options for Ukraine's accession candidacy status.
Plan A foresees that the European Commission will conclude that Ukraine meets the criteria, and the EU will recognize its candidate status now. All subsequent steps, such as the start of negotiations, would be conditional on the implementation of reforms.
Plan B, which is promoted by several capitals, envisages that conditions will be put forward now, and until they are met, Ukraine will be a "candidate".
The list of conditions is proposed to be spelled out in the conclusions of the European Commission, so that it would not look like an idea of the member states, but the EC itself.
At the summit in June, in this case, Ukraine will be informed that it becomes only a "potential candidate" and also receives a legally recognized prospect of membership, which so far has not been formally recorded in any document.
There is an opinion among individual European Commission officials and among individual member states that Plan B will not be a "zrada. It is even being "leaked" to the media, preparing for a likely negative development. Thus, a number of media outlets last night circulated Bloomberg reports with the headline Ukraine Likely to Win Initial EU Backing for Path to Membership.
"But in the form of this "victory" a source in the EU told journalists exactly about Plan B, which would be an unqualified defeat for Kiev. This has already been publicly stated both in the government and at the Bankova. Ukrainian reform experts unanimously spoke about it and sent a letter to the EU about it, which gathered unprecedented support," the article says.
According to European Pravda, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will visit Ukraine in the coming days. The purpose of her visit is to explain to Zelensky personally the state of affairs and suggest how Kiev can prevent a negative decision from the summit.
We shall remind you that a number of European countries are not ready to unconditionally support granting Ukraine EU candidate status at the European Council summit in late June.
