The European Union is preparing to join its ranks with new countries

The heads of the EU countries instructed the European Commission to prepare conclusions on the applications of Moldova and Georgia to join the European Union. Earlier, a similar decision was made on the application of Ukraine. 

Georgia applied to join the European Union under the accelerated procedure on March 2. The head of the ruling party noted that the authorities planned to apply only in 2024, however, due to recent political events, they decided to hurry up. On March 3, the Republic of Moldova also announced its application to join the European Union.

Ukraine took similar steps on February 28, against the background of the beginning of the Russian military operation on the territory of Ukraine. 

Brussels has started reviewing all applications, noting that there have never been such precedents in history. As a rule, EU accession negotiations last for many years, sometimes more than 10 years.

The current candidates for EU membership (Serbia and Montenegro) received the status a few years ago, but the negotiations are still far from being completed. In addition to the success of the negotiations, it is necessary to hold a referendum in which the citizens of the candidate country should vote for the country's accession to the EU.