the authorities of ukraine, the republic of moldova and georgia to speed up reforms in order to effectively fulfill the eu membership criteria as soon as possible in the european union, they note that official negotiations with the candidates will begin after they fulfill the conditions specified in the conclusions of the european commission regarding applications for membership, the head of the supreme council ruslan stefanchuk has already reacted to such a historic event on his facebook page, the official thanked the european parliament for the adoption of the resolution , now this information appears, what i was talking about my colleague, it seems that all week we heard encouraging information from the ukrainian authorities, and finally from our guests who came to ukraine. last week is a historic day for europe, the leaders of the european union countries gathered in brussels to confirm ukraine's status as a candidate for eu membership, we are starting a special broadcast from ukraine , from brussels, let's take a look behind the scenes of the decision that

is being adopted today, and i will be helped in this by the deputy prime minister for european and euro-atlantic integration of ukraine, olga stefanishyna, ukrainian diplomats, ex-minister of foreign affairs volodymyr ogrysko and we will also talk with the co-founder of the degree project yevgeniy bliznyuk and the director of the european program of the renaissance fund dmytro shulga . so, the summit of the european union is going on right now. the most important question is whether to grant ukraine the status of a candidate country for joining the european union. i have been following european politics from here for many years from brussels and i can say without exaggeration that the event is historical, we

will analyze in detail what it means in practice if we discard all the political pathos and how it can influence the life of every ukrainian, but he suggests starting with the statement of the president of the european council , charles michel, and pay attention to how this morning he simply shone with optimism. this is a decisive moment for the european union. this is a geopolitical choice that we will make today. i am convinced that we will grant candidate status to ukraine and moldova, as well as a clear perspective, a european perspective for ukraine , georgia, and moldova, and about the court at this moment it becomes clear that the negotiations of the eu leaders at the summit in brussels are somewhat complicated by the wishes of some countries to also grant the status of a candidate to bosnia and herzegovina. for example , the correspondent of radio svoboda record usb wrote about this on twitter, as does the politiko publication, and we are joining the conversation with the vice-prime minister for european integration of ukraine,

olga stefanishyna. congratulations, and do you understand the first thing i want to ask ? what is happening now, how can the final resolution be changed, the politician writes that it can be rewritten now, will it not interfere with ukraine? congratulations, of course, we are all very nervous, because the discussions themselves are significantly delayed although at first it was said that a decision would be made even tomorrow, indeed, yesterday's meeting with the balkan countries gave a certain impetus to the strengthening of this discussion at the summit, as far as i know, a certain compromise has been found, these negotiations are now being completed, and literally, soon , the leaders will proceed to the discussion of the issue of granting ukraine candidate status, we are optimistic , because i want to draw attention to how much the rhetoric of european leaders has changed,

and the fact that candidate status was considered as a certain gift to ukraine to the fact that today the european union adopts a historic geopolitical decision, this is a very important change, because we are talking about that decision is also taken in favor of the european project as such. here, i want to continue in this regard. you can go on until midnight and far in the south, or there have been press conferences at two o'clock and at 3:00 a.m. and we will all work today, of course , until michelle's shawl comes out again to journalists and will not announce what decision was made behind closed doors, going back to what you just said, there were indeed a lot of skeptics in kyiv and in the european union. i know that you spent many hours talking with partners in europe, which argument was decisive, what happened, there were several such arguments and at each stage of the conversations

they were different, i want to thank our civil society, which was also heard very well in skeptical countries, they united with the government for this great goal and many they talked about our reforms, this educational work was important, i would say that there were three main factors that prevailed: the first is our position that ukraine, unlike russia, was trusted and reliable all these 30 years of independence proved as a partner that they provide gas transit and gas integration into energy systems and the functioning of the visa-free regime, and this was such a turning point, let's say the second story. to understand that ukraine is not asking for candidate status, we have already come a long way

to be part of the market and now part of the political family, the second turning point was that, first of all, this request did not come from the president, the prime minister, or the speaker, this request came from the citizens of ukraine, because 91% of ukrainian citizens support the european union movement , and the answer would be no the answer is no to the people of ukraine, first of all, and the third argument was that we are not talking about membership, we are talking about the status of a candidate in a country that woke up to war on february 24, and let's say to pay tribute to all the changes and transformations we made 8 years after fulfilling 70% of the association agreement and it was very important to secure this choice and not a choice with a specific legal decision and not politically promise such a thing in this context precisely in the context of our

infamous path to nato and also became a lesson for the leaders of the countries of the european union which they didn't want to follow. let's talk about changes and transformations. but i look at the conditions put forward by the european commission and understand that i don't see anything new here. well, yes, there are some new points. but mainly brussels has been saying all this in recent years about the fight against corruption, about the reform of the judicial branch of government, and so on, you said the day before that kyiv will fulfill the conditions of the european commission by the end of the year, the question is why ukraine did not fulfill this earlier well, you know there are such and such cartoons about prostokvashino yes, it is good that we will fulfill them to the end e-th year because in fact for each of the points a basis has actually already been created or draft laws have been developed or there is a normative or legal basis for the implementation of the

task both in anti-corruption and in the position reform, i can say that for example in the implementation changes to the legislation on judicial reform, we are implementing it on even now, in the period of war , we hope to be able to speed up these processes and put into effect the legislation that is provided for by each of these seven points, it is obvious that from the first day of a full-scale war, it is a matter of law about the media or the law on national minorities or the implementation of the recommendations of the international group fat was not in the first place and today we have the opportunity during this process to implement these recommendations because macedonia is a candidate for accession already 17 years if i am not mistaken albania 8 years so welcome ukraine it is a good thing to give the candidate status but i hope that the ukrainian people will have no illusions about this so

many countries are already in the candidate status i understand that it is a little ahead but one thing to hold the status of the candidate is another matter to start negotiations on accession, which may last who knows how long. do you have any idea when kyiv will start negotiations on accession or a plan? thank you for the question, indeed the prime minister of denmark was recently here in kyiv in kyiv met with the president and the prime minister and talked about the fact that this status has a political significance, and i want to draw attention to several things for the country - this is the first legal decision related to the accession of ukraine to the european union for all these years, we had only political promises, only political formats, from the normandy format to the bukharev e-e summit in 2008, where we were promised nato membership by

politicians, and to the budapest memorandum, which turned out to be a legal document, this is the first decision when ukraine is officially recognized as a part of the european union, then a lot depends on us, but i can say that by submitting an application for membership in the european union today, ukraine launched a huge process of revising the european union's expansion policy, and without the discourse on ukraine, there would be no substantive discourse on the western balkans today. therefore, it is necessary calm down and understand that ukraine is not a country that will be kept on the bench, that's not why we are. this new status opens the door to new financial instruments that will help restore and rebuild ukraine after the war ends, and of course now

ukraine's compliance with the conditions and standards of membership in the european union, primarily economic - this is a joint responsibility of both ukraine and the european union, just as we are talking about the start of negotiations with regard to membership, we must first of all concentrate on the restoration of the state, of course, the end of the ongoing war in ukraine with our victory definitely and a-a reconstruction of the state based on the principles of a competitive market economy that will compete with economies in the european union, therefore the candidate status gives us the opportunity to access new funds of new financial instruments plus politically the european commission will coordinate together with the ukrainian authorities the process of restoring the reconstruction of ukraine city by city therefore, without this status, we would have access, let’s

say, to much smaller resources. and in fact, each aid package was considered as a gift to ukraine, but something else - this is an investment after the status of a candidate, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us, this is probably the most critical moment, deputy prime minister for european integration of ukraine olga stefanishyna, i am checking the feeds of news agencies very quickly, there are no messages yet from the europe building , where the leaders of the european union have gathered, and therefore, without any further delay, i want to introduce the next guest, the ukrainian diplomat , ex-minister of foreign affairs of ukraine, volodymyr ogryzko good evening to you i congratulate you, mr. grigoriy good health, and uh, the first question of requirements, we talked about it very briefly with uh, just now, with mrs. stefanishyna. how do you evaluate such status candidates with an asterisk ?

to say that we have to thank the authorities for the fact that she is truly a personal mrs. stepanishnyi for her personal contribution to the fact that today we practically came to a truly historic decision because after it i think we can uh, it's very clear and clear to say to yourself and the whole world that sport is over with the soviet past and this is for me the most important political conclusion from this, what will happen today regarding the stars, uh, you know, they are actually necessary in order for uh, our government to understand that, after all, we need to act faster and i really hope, i believe in what the vice prime minister just said about the fact that by the end of this year we will be able to do all those things

that should have been done a long time ago, and you are right about that, well, at least the mistakes should be corrected, this process should be accelerated, and now the ball will be on our side on the side of ukraine. so now it will depend on how the government and society will interact in order to achieve the result as quickly as possible. and those points that you already mentioned in the conversation with ms. stefanyshina, they are good for everyone and for a long time known, there is nothing extraordinary here, now we just need one single condition, which is called political will , and if the authorities have this political will, then it will be done as quickly as possible. and why did n't this happen at all? it didn’t happen before, but the reluctance of the eu, the lack of political will in the eu, the reluctance of the ukrainian elite

to change. both of these things, what do you think? i would add the last fourth - this is a change in the position of the west in relation to the russian federation after february 24, because we will not hide and say that this is not true, but until that date, everything that the russian federation did was perceived well, almost as a norm . so-so they allow some certain no no no no good things, but in general we can live, we will earn from the russians our next hundreds of billions of euros , dollars, pounds, etc. but on february 24, it changed the attitude of western politicians towards russia

, because already against this background it was simply impossible not to see and not want to see more accurately what russia was doing. by the way, i want to thank great britain for its leadership in this regard , because it is the british and americans who are showing the flag today. that is, these are the countries which clearly and clearly stated that they will not tolerate violations of international law, they will not tolerate violations of human rights, they will not turn a blind eye to the crimes of the russian horde, which today is in some parts of the territory of ukraine, so i think that this change of policy in the position of the west in relation to russia , it was also one of the very important factors that helped push the situation forward. well, it is definitely against this background and, let's say,

things that related to our government, and theirs, and the efforts of this authorities sometimes flirt with russia the federation, despite the fact that there was a war and not to make decisions that were already in the air since the 14th year. well, for example, the same diplomatic relations, the same visas and so on that actually only happened very recently, that's why i think it all became a catalyst for decision -making both in ukraine and outside of ukraine, and that's why today we really, i think we will celebrate this decision together because it has a historical significance not only for the european union, but also for ukraine of course you know i'm literally me first i repeatedly heard in brussels that the european union had no appetite for expansion up to

ukraine. the last time i probably heard this phrase was three weeks ago. how much do you think this is the current decision of the european union? honestly, how far is the european union ready to go to the extent of expansion in 10 years? 15-20 years. i don't know why, er, i think you are somewhat pessimistic about our prospects for 10-15 years. i think that despite the fact that we have already come a long way in fulfilling the terms of the association agreement , it is being shortened. i think by a good half because remember, ukraine already has many different visa-free programs and i think that this is exactly the path that we have to take in the next few years. so, we have to start negotiations on almost three dozen different dossiers, and this is definitely a great tension for our parliament , because it is necessary to bring in accordance with the

european all-ukrainian legislation er, adapt it accordingly of the same thesis, which is called political will, if both sides have it, then nothing can stop this joint progress, i don't think that we will focus on those who today in the european union talk about war fatigue, about the needlessness of expansion, that's all the moscow cans that have been laid for a long time and are now beginning to explode. i think their fate will be the same as the fate of the russian federation, which if it does not stop in the coming months, i think it will suffer its own collapse and this by the way, there will be another one geopolitical upheaval with which we will still have

to deal in the near future or russia or rather the approach to the decision-maker will finally understand that the continuation of this senseless wild horde policy leads to a dead end for russia and in fact questions its existence, therefore there are several options. but i think that today's decision will have an extremely great geopolitical significance, because such allies and partners as ukraine will only strengthen the european union and, in the future, nato, but it is necessary we will have to wait for a decision, as we see, the leaders of the countries of the european union are pulling an intrigue, thank you very much, ukrainian diplomats. the minister of foreign affairs of ukraine, volodymyr ogrysko, was a guest of our program. thank you again for your time, and i remind you that this is a special broadcast of b8 from ukraine. from brussels, we

are watching the summit of the european union together. of the union, millions of ukrainians throughout europe are also today closely following the decision made by the leaders of the european union countries, and in the european quarter of brussels, right at the house where the politicians gathered today ukrainians came with flags with calls to approve such a european perspective for ukraine. these are mostly people who came to belgium already after the start of russia's war against ukraine, but most probably after ukraine itself, they held their breath today. well, probably in poland, the country where millions of ukrainians found refuge from the war and from warsaw i am joined by my colleague halyna korba halyna, i congratulate you, what is the current mood in warsaw, how confident are you in the decision that is to be announced today in the political capital of europe, in fact, poland from the very beginning was such a driver of the locomotive that

promoted the idea that right now in ukraine it is necessary to grant the status of a candidate for the european union and the president. actively personally convinced the skeptics who believed that this issue is still out of time, and it must be said that both the polish authorities and the polish mass media are very optimistic about today's summit, the day before andrzej duda himself said that he does not have anxiety about what the decision will be, he stated that the issue of granting candidate status for ukraine is a fundamental issue because, in his opinion, the country of eastern europe cannot be neutral. it must be either in the sphere of influence of russia or in the sphere of influence of the west and that is precisely why, since ukrainians are now bleeding to be part of the event, the european union must show its will and

grant ukraine the status of a candidate, eh. well, the polish report itself. more on the events together with experts galina korbami , my colleague was from warsaw just now and i am checking very quickly whether there is an update from europe building so far there is none and i am glad to welcome on the air the sociologist, co-founder of this project degree yevgeny u bliznyuk and the director of the european program of the renaissance foundation dmytro shulgu i congratulate you and the first question is for yevgeny. has the perception of the european union changed among ukrainians? what do you think, is it a choice of values ​​or an economic one? good evening.

since the beginning of the war, it has become obvious to the majority of our fellow citizens, because if until february 24 a large proportion of respondents answered us that they either hesitated to answer or think that ukraine should leave neutral status, now more than 7-70% of respondents answer that ukraine's choice is europe and the movement towards the european union is no longer subject to certain doubts and the second indicator, which we definitely see for the first time since the beginning. well, i don’t know, maybe not from the beginning, but over a very long period of sociological measurements. and such an indicator as the confidence that the country is moving in the right direction in its development is supported by more than half of the respondents, because as you may remember

, ukrainians are usually quite skeptical about the development of the state and the authorities in general. however, now 54% believe that the country is moving in the right direction despite military actions and despite the terrible things that society and people have to go through, i understood yevheniya, i have a question even before dmytro about the understanding of the european union in ukraine , is it more idealistic or closer to reality, how far do people in ukraine generally understand what is the modern european union? it is an interesting question that should be asked by a sociologist for sure, so that they conduct an appropriate study. i think that now the level of business in ukraine among ukrainian citizens with the european union has become much more real than it was once when in

do you remember when we still had a visa regime? when we did n't have free trade. when we had it at all, when we started european integration. we weren't even directly with the neighbors of the eu member states. now, when many ukrainians have direct experience, now many millions of ukrainians have found refuge in the countries of the european union, this is also a huge personal experience, and i think that including the level of expert business with the european union, which was demonstrated by our government when it was in record the deadline for responding to the huge european union questionnaire, which was required to be answered in order to consider our application, this all demonstrates that the level of respectability in our country is now much higher than in reality even in of many countries that previously received the status of a candidate. so i think that now it is objectively high enough or awareness in the european union about ukraine now if we take

the context of the war and are the european union countries of the european union ready to invest in ukraine to invest money to ukraine to support ukraine to accept ukraine in the future a-a in the eu well, what we see uh-uh after the beginning of russian uh-huh large- scale aggression is a change fundamentally variable fundamental variable of public opinion of ukraine among eu members, we now have, according to the results of the euroborometer, two-thirds of the citizens of the european union, 66% support ukraine's accession to the european union in the future, and, by the way, this was one of our key arguments in the discussions on the granting of candidate status by the countries members of the eu and the fact that our country receives the status of a candidate - this is just a guarantee that we will already be considered officially as a future member, sometime in the future it may take really different terms

, we have discussed it now, but it is actually official the status of a future member of the european union and this , including how it will be, including means that they will invest with the bishop, will work in ukraine as a future member of the european union , and it is interesting to see how the support to develop in the future will be hidden, and evgenia, i have been to you for the last few years. questions if possible briefly, millions of ukrainians are currently in what do you think they will bring with them to ukraine, this is a good question, because european integration is actually taking place now, yes, because a lot of our fellow citizens, in particular, women and the children found themselves in the eu zone and there are a lot of them. of course, there are things they miss. at home, they all say that they want to return to ukraine

. degree conducts a survey of people who ended up in the european union. along with this, they note the positive things, let's say, the practices of the european union. union that they would like to see at home, this first of all concerns the inclusiveness of the development of cities, the organization of relations between the state and the person. that is, we receive a very significant enrichment and an impetus to the implementation of european affairs, thank you very much thank you very much sociology yevgenia blizniuk and director of the european program director of the european program of the renaissance fund dmytro shulga thank you and we put an end to this on the occasion that the summit of the leaders of the eu countries continues today is a historic day for ukraine for the eu for europe you can find more details as always on our website bbc. ua well , we will meet as usual. we will meet tomorrow at 21:00

. the verdict program, my name is serhiy rudenko . good day and good health to all. today is the 120th day of the heroic resistance of the ukrainian people against of the russian occupiers today in brussels the historic summit of the european union is taking place 27 member countries of the european union must give an answer to whether the candidate receives