German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has supported the decision to start negotiations with Ukraine on joining the European Union in December, Reuters reports.
In a speech at a conference in Berlin, Baerbock said that EU enlargement has become a "geostrategic necessity" because of Russia's war against Ukraine, and that the EU needs to carry out "painful reforms" to achieve this.
"We want to see Ukraine as a member of our European Union, and I am convinced that the European Council will send this signal in December," Baerbock said.
She emphasized that the enlarged EU will become stronger only if it "does what it has not dared to do for so long" - reviews and rethinks how it functions.
Earlier, we reported that the report of the EU executive structures, which will assess Ukraine's progress in fulfilling the conditions for accession to the European Union, will be released on November 8.
