i'm putting an end to this, but i'm not saying goodbye. one step closer, the european commission recommends that the european union start negotiations with ukraine on joining the eu. when to expect it, we talk about it in today's issue of bbc news ukraine. olga palomaryuk works in the studio. the commission recommended starting membership negotiations with ukraine. president zelenskyi calls this a positive signal, but isn't it too early to celebrate? what experts and bbc correspondents say. ukraine has already fulfilled 90% of the requirements necessary to start negotiations on joining the eu. these are the conclusions european commission. made public today in

brussels, and about 90% - these are the words of president ursula fonderlein. she presented a report on the progress of the three candidate countries in fulfilling the tasks necessary for the start of negotiations, these are the tasks that were put forward by the european commission when ukraine received candidate status. it was in june of last year, and, let me remind you, then representatives of all 20 seven countries of the european union voted for it. and what about the decision regarding ukraine, announced ursula funderlaijen? ukraine continues to face huge challenges difficulties and tragedies caused by the russian war and aggression. and yet, ukrainians are deeply reforming their country, even while fighting this existential war. i was in ukraine over the weekend and made sure that ukraine has completed more than 90% of the necessary steps that we set last year, the rest of the reforms are already on the way, this is good, and the commission

is proud. on this basis, today we recommended to the council to start accession negotiations. we also recommend that the council adopt a framework for negotiations after ukraine has conducted current reforms. kyiv's reaction was immediate, they were waiting for a positive conclusion regarding ukraine's readiness for negotiations, it seems. in a minute, the details of what ukraine still has to do, first, this is how president zelensky assessed the signal from brussels. pure positive, despite all the difficulties, we are moving forward, and already in december we expect a political decision from the european council. ukrainians have always been and are part of our common european family. our country should be in the european union. ukrainians deserve this and their protection european values, and the fact that even during a full-scale war, we keep our word. well, in fact, ukraine's path to

the european union is long and difficult. let's remember its beginning. in 1994, ukraine and the eu signed an agreement on partnership and cooperation. the document came into force only after ratification, four years later. next, there were negotiations on the agreement on the association of the free trade zone, negotiations on the visa-free regime, until in 2013, the government of president yanukovych suspended the process of preparation for the signature. association agreements, this became the impetus for euromaymay and the revolution of dignity. and the visa-free regime between ukraine and the european union started in 2017. last year, ukraine submitted an application to join the european union , and this is the first time in history that a warring country can start negotiations on joining the european union. ukraine had to fulfill seven blocks of requirements and four of them, as the european commission says, have already been fulfilled. the european commission believes that ukraine still has

to work on three of the seven blocks of recommendations, they relate to the fight against corruption, the rights of national minorities, ukraine must complete the reform of the relevant legislation, as well as to create a legal basis for de-oligarchization, all this must be done by march next year. and in a minute we will analyze what ukraine still needs to do on the way to eu membership, but first. this is how the significance of the conclusion of the european commission was outlined by the bbc correspondent, this is an important decision, and it brings ukraine one step closer to joining the european union, which kyiv strongly wants, but the eu is facing a dilemma, on the one hand, they want to send a strong signal of solidarity to the ukrainian people, to show that ukraine is in europe, and not in the orbit of russia, but in fact it is very difficult to accept a country at war into the union. ukraine is the most mined country in the world, it is full of weapons, its territories

are occupied by russia. the process of joining the european union takes about 10 years, there are many technical subtleties and details, so in practice, this is a big and powerful... political signal from brussels, but before ukraine finally becomes a member of the european union, i still have many years. let's talk more about everything, a researcher joins the broadcast maria zolkina of the london school of economics and political scientist mykola davydyuk, i congratulate you, maria, here is today's decision of the european commission, how do you evaluate it, and what does it mean for ukraine? i congratulate you, i rate it positively enough as the actual beginning. changes in the approaches of the european union not only to relations with ukraine, but also to understanding in general those countries that were part of the eastern partnership and have association agreements, how to build relations with them in new conditions, when there is russian aggression and obviously, the european union needs to

to react, that is, if the previous, classical procedures were preserved, and we followed , for example, the path followed by the entire region of the western balkans at one time, then to...' probably there would not be such decisions as today, but as of today this is a positive signal, it is the beginning of a process that simultaneously signals that the european union will be flexible and will apply different tactics to ukraine and moldova than was traditionally applied to the acceding countries, how we will take advantage of this chance politically and institutionally will already depend on at least 2/3 of the internal political... process in ukraine, well, actually , how do we take advantage, yes, mykola, there is work to be done in ukraine, but we see three points that have not been implemented, in particular the legislation on national minorities, we recall that they particularly insisted on this hungarians, however, in order to fulfill this condition, it is necessary to make changes to

the laws on language and education, but in your opinion, it is real, look, it is real, but in europe itself today there are more questions about, for example, hungary than. to ukraine and the policy that hungary is pursuing today, it is not at all is considered european, and what they are doing together with slovakia looks quite dubious, so it is definitely not for hungary to impose any conditions on ukraine for accession today, because hungary itself looks like a country that is on its way to the exit, so it is necessary to delay here too, well so think twice, and plus there are a lot of cool conversations with diplomats, who also signal that you should not rush to fulfill everything that hungary requires, although it is really necessary to unify normal legislation, but definitely not... contrary to the ukrainian language or not ukrainian national interests: the first, second, and third points, which have not been fulfilled, are solely the failure of our cabinet of ministers and our deputies, who were excluded

last year. the european union, that is, everyone helped us together, made an exception for applying for membership, but not all of them, not all of us. well, let's say, the representatives of the authorities finalized and processed it. poland entered seven years, the finns 3.5, i think 10, still this is a little too long, because the change of political cycles in the european union itself can lead to the fact that they will simply forget about this issue, and russia will invest hundreds of billions of dollars and it will simply be eaten, so our task is to go inside between it and 3.5 and do so , so that we would be the leaders of the accession process, but definitely not... come from the point of view of the latter, because if we enter from the latter, then georgia and moldova are beautiful countries, but in georgia today, for example, pro-russian government, that is, it takes a whole cycle to the government changed only in georgia, it's not about starting reforms, it's just that the government changed, then we see that there is

bosnia and herzegovina, which has questions about statehood in general, and this is also a lot of questions for some of our officials, who offer us bosnia and herzegovina as a role model for holding elections, war, there is kosovo, which not all of europe has recognized, so we definitely cannot go for the last one, yes there are two, there are countries that have been around for 20 years, such as macedonia, montenegro, albania, serbia, which are waiting in their turn, but it's definitely not ours either an example to follow, today we are one of those countries that is the most ready, and we just really need a few things that the west is hinting at, very directly, succinctly and clearly, these are cadres, these are oligarchs and this is corruption, that's all, that is, if we are these three we close the issue, we can then move normally freely, and again, the explanation should not be that we have a war, we will take longer, on the contrary, we have a war, so we must act faster, we must support europe, but today, it seems to me that europe is ready for expansion, but it is not

2004, not 2014, when europe was not ready for expansion, they didn't even want to talk about it, but today they understand that they are competing with such a monster as the russian federation, they are with such a large economy, completely different, what about mr. borel said, in principle, china, and here too in such a comfortable way, in which it was cool to live and coexist, but in competing for global supremacy, for continental power, they will have to expand, and here exactly ukraine and the countries of the balkan peninsula and moldova and georgia, this is just a good opportunity to increase their influence in order not to make an alternative scenario, when these territories are taken over by russia or china, a reality. mykola, thank you, here is maria, i have a question for you, there are not so many until march, but is it within ukraine's power to promptly introduce... all these changes, what are your forecasts? well

, it is possible to make changes quickly, because there are two questions about quite technical things, functioning and procedures that are applied in relation to the personnel potential of nabu and the procedures by which the national anti-corruption agency conducts inspections, and by the way, the issue that concerns national minorities is proposed rather vaguely, in such a vague formulation proposed by the european commission, and here, in fact , the situation politically can turn both positive and negative a minus for ukraine, if the european commission agrees with hungary, just as they have agreed more than once, when they tried to avoid the veto situation, and in fact the manipulation of this right of veto by hungary, then other mechanisms are included, and the european commission, at the expense of its relations with pest, agrees on their agreement to vote unanimously

where consensus is needed, and accordingly the veto is not imposed, therefore, if it is possible to agree similarly now, then regardless of what exactly ukraine will do to fulfill this criteria for legislation for national minorities , hungary will not impose a veto, but if the clincher occurs not only in relations between kyiv and there will be... a pest, as it happens, purely for internal political reasons in hungary, but it will occur the problem is with the agreement with brussels, primarily for financial reasons, so that hungary also receives some bonuses , they usually agree on this with the european commission, if there is such a conflict in the triangle as a whole, then there may be problems, but what is important, that the beginning of certain procedures, as part of the preparation , actually... the beginning as part of the preparation of the actual negotiation process, it will take place already after december, this is very important, that is

, even before the first report, or rather the next report of the european commission in march, if in the december summit of the european union is given full approval for the start of negotiations, certain procedures are already starting, they will not depend on the conclusion of the european commission on the fulfillment of the criteria in march. unfortunately, we don't have much time, a short question for you. both, how long can the accession negotiations last, mykola, you have 30 seconds, look , i think we need to see who will preside, well, the 24th is definitely excluded for us, because hungary will preside for six months, so we can easy to spend on negotiations and agree on cool conditions for for our agriculture, for it, for our service companies, but the 25th is poland, the 27th, 28th is latvia, lithuania, i think that these are the three best years for our entry, and the most important thing is that our

the government did not delay due to the fact that this is all, now we will only start from march, although we received the ok in november, well, again, four or five months, which we simply spend on nothing, if we had defeated the oligarchs and corruption earlier , well, again, these four months were saved, we lost the window when we were excluded, we received membership candidacy due to exclusion, it could also be done, but since we are already going through the full procedure, i think that 25, 27, 28 are the best years. for admission, plus they will be before the parliamentary and european parliamentary elections, we will be able to have our own representatives. maria, and briefly, what is your opinion? unfortunately, the accession procedure itself, it will be different from those procedures that apply to apply for membership, where the political will that my colleague is talking about played a role on the part of the european union, the accession negotiations - it is very technocrat, it is physically impossible to do it in less than 3-4 years, so

you have to adjust to the procedure for at least four years, four years, we heard you, thank you, and that's all for today, see you tomorrow, all the best. greetings friends, the verdict program continues in the evening on the espresso tv channel, my name is serhii rudenko, from now on every weekday, every day at 20:00 , a two-hour program, verdict , and we talk about the most important things in ukraine, in the world, about the war, about the economy , about the elections, and of course about the european one integration, because today it is a top topic,

the european commission recommended that the european union start negotiations with regarding the accession of ukraine to the european union. the final decision on the start of these negotiations is expected in december, but we will now talk about the first details of what awaits ukraine, in what terms, with the deputy prime minister of ukraine for european and euro-atlantic integration olga stefanishyna. ms. olga, i congratulate you, i am glad to see you on our air. good evening, sergey, i congratulate you. mrs. olga, i congratulate you on the decision of the european commission, because it is another one of ours step to the european union, and today the president of the european commission said that this is a historic day. let's very simply explain to our tv viewers what this historicity consists of and what awaits ukrainians in the european union?

eh, thank you, serge for the question, i’m honestly glad that today, this decision was announced just like that, the president of the european commission announced the unconditional start of the negotiation process on such a recommendation, and already on december 14, eu leaders will meet on the basis of this recommendation to adopt decision, i am sure that it will be positive for ukraine, and today i rejoice together with all ukrainians who, in such a difficult time for us, are waiting for such news, it is first of all a signal that europe continues to stand with us, europe invests in ukraine, europe invests to our future and to the future of ukraine in europe, this is the most important contribution to our victory, in addition to the weapons that we need very much, ms. olga, the europeans are talking about the fact that we have completed four of the seven

tasks, and why we have completed four of seven tasks, couldn't we all do seven tasks perform during that period. from the moment when we were told that ukraine is a candidate for eu membership, it is not so, the document that was leaked to the media literally yesterday differs from the decision that was published today by the european commission and announced by the president herself, literally, the european commission recognizes progress on all seven recommendations and responsibly declares in an official document that the measures taken by ukraine in all recommendations allow us to say that ukraine meets the copenhagen criteria for membership in the european union has a point, and on the basis of this it recommends starting the negotiation process, this is a quote from the conclusion of the european commission, and

of course we also saw additional expectations from the european government itself regarding the next steps, they are technical, and president zelensky discussed this with zursulo voonderlein when she was here in kyiv, are not news for us, we understand that our european path continues, we understand that the reforms must continue, they do not stop either with the implementation of the seven recommendations, or with the beginning negotiations, we are moving on, and i will aggressively fight for this recognition and i hope that ukrainians and our ukrainian politicians will allow our citizens to feel that europe is close by and that ukraine is doing everything possible for this, so i am asking everyone, let's say so, do not underestimate us and our work. ms. olga, today

, one eu country has claims against ukraine, at least articulated, it is hungary, they talk about the law on education and that the law obliges minorities to receive at least 70% education in the ukrainian language, it does not suit hungary, hungary will demand from ukraine the cancellation of this law or this norm, let's say, what concessions is ukraine ready to make in order to become a member of the european union? we are not talking about concessions, on the contrary, we understand. that for all eu states, not only neighboring ones, we must demonstrate the ability to be a part of a larger union of a larger europe, a country that will be able to find... consensus in difficult situations, defending its own interests, precisely on this basis, i instructed the ministry education

together with the ministry of foreign affairs to make a visit to budapest, such a visit was made, there are agreements, ukraine has provided a road map, how we plan to move forward, we have positive conclusions from the venice commission, adopted legislation, so we feel quite confident, having also the support of the national minorities including the hungarian national minority in ukraine, but in fact, i don't want to focus on hungary, this is a process in the works, from tomorrow, after the decision of the european commission, we are working as a priority with the states, members, we are mobilizing this unity, we are mobilizing consensus, and today's decision has laid a very solid basis for the vast majority of member countries to already form a positive decision regarding the opening of the december window, if a positive decision regarding ukraine is not adopted at the december eu summit , which means we will return again to the point

of necessity to fulfill the demands that were before us. i have the honor to represent the state of ukraine in our movement towards the european union and to defend these decisions, i also stood on the maidan 10 years ago, and we know what happens when they try to divert us from the european path, we go out on the square, and we do not we will make it possible for any interest to undermine unity in europe today, to undermine the leadership of the european union in consolidating our victory through the european path, and in the same way, i will not allow any manipulations that may take place inside the country, regarding, regarding this path, therefore there are risks, there are problems, there are challenges, but

the solution cannot be other than the opening of negotiations, it is in the interests of ukraine and europe. ms. olga, you mentioned how 10 years ago, the euromaidan started, because ukraine , or rather, the yanukovych government and regime, refused to go to europe or postponed the march to europe, or in this case, when we are talking about the present time, russia still may affect our european prospects, euro-atlantic prospects, and how the war will affect our progress towards europe, as it will be evident in interval of 3-4 or five years, what will be the terms of this campaign? specifically, as regards the european union, european integration, russia definitely cannot influence this process in any way, it is irreversible, and moreover

, just as ukrainians, from the first day of the maidan, as well as with the beginning of a full-scale war, are already inoculated against russian influence, the same immunity has been formed in many capitals of the european union, although russia also carries out ibso information campaigns, but today they no longer have such an influence, no matter how ingenuity the russians show, together with that, of course, there is a clear awareness that ukraine's victory will be a booster for decisions related to ukraine's membership, but i want to remind you that the association agreement was signed with ukraine already when crimea was annexed, the occupation of donetsk and luhansk regions began, but the agreement was signed and it concerns the entire territory of ukraine, from kyiv to yalta, likewise, today and in

our membership negotiations , there are no issues at all related to the war or its end. we move just as dynamically, we move forward, and of course, when the main part of the negotiation process is completed, we will understand , ah, what period of time is that, uh, did it happen before the end of the war or ah after it, so of course there will be this discussion, but it will be later, for now the war is not affects the decisions of ukraine, it affects only the future of europe, and that is why today we are happy that europe has taken the right step towards a meeting, a bright page of history. thank you, ms. ulgo, to you. for the conversation, it was olga seyefanishina, the vice prime minister of ukraine for european and euro-atlantic integration. friends, during the program we conduct a survey,

today we ask you about the following. is it necessary to criticize the government during the war, yes, no, please vote for us on youtube, we have a voting machine there and it works, and you can see the phone numbers on the screen, by calling the numbers, you can also vote if you think so , that it is necessary to criticize the government during the war, call 0800, 211381, no 0800 211-38 52 and all calls to these numbers are free of charge, at the end of the program we will sum up the results of this vote, and we will be in touch further have to be people's deputies of ukraine, let's talk about european integration, let's talk about how ukraine will move to europe, to the european union, i want to introduce today's guests, this is a people

's deputy of ukraine from the servant of the people party, kravchuk, ms. yevgenia, i congratulate you and thank you who joined our broadcast. people's deputy of ukraine from the european solidarity faction iryna herashchenko. ms. irina, i congratulate and thank you for being with us today. thank you for the invitation. and andrii sadchuk, people's deputy of ukraine from the vote. mr. andriy, i i congratulate you, thank you for joining our broadcast. good evening, sergey. well, since we ask our tv viewers a seemingly banal question, whether it is possible to criticize the government. during the war, nevertheless, i will try to ask you too, although the answer seems to be obvious, but still, let's share our thoughts in the format of a blitz poll, whether it is necessary to criticize the government during the war, what we can criticize, how we can criticize, how can affect what is happening in ukraine at all, ms. iryna, please, but it is not personalities who should be criticized, and actions, and of course, if... it is necessary

in order to correct mistakes, this is a duty , not some kind of news, i want to say, for example, that today another information came out that our army did not receive 100 thousand cartridges, projectiles purchased at the cost of billions of hryvnias, purchased by reznikov's ministry of defense, please tell me whether we should criticize for this or not, it is obvious that it is our duty to investigate... to point out these mistakes, criticize and correct them, because we should unite not around the government, but around the armed forces of ukraine and let's all work on it together. thank you, mr. andriy, well, if we are talking about people's deputies of ukraine, then parliamentary control is part of the duties, mandatory functionality of the verkhovna rada and people 's deputies, they definitely have to follow the government, at the same time, we are in the first months of the war,

of course were completely... a coordinate system with other priorities, a lot has changed since then, i think, maybe even too much has changed, because it seems that the lack of missile attacks on kyiv has a very negative effect on the wishes of many, it is possible to criticize the government too much, no matter how strange it sounds from my mouth, because i think it is important here not to ask questions, to criticize or not, you need to follow the government, point out mistakes, but you need to... very carefully follow the tone and the emotion behind this criticism, because we have such a certain tradition, it is too emotional, to pay attention to some details, perhaps taken out of context, it always turns into some noise, in principle, people love it, but i think now criticism should be as focused as possible, reasonable and constructive, because we need a result, we need not a halo, we need

a result. because we haven't won the war yet, the situation remains extremely fragile and difficult, so you have to grit your teeth as much as possible, even when you really want to scream. thank you, mr. andriy, ms. yevhennia. well, it is probably the most difficult for me to answer, because i am a representative of the government, but in fact we are all representatives, and people's deputies from other factions are also part of this system of checks and balances. of course, we must pay constructive attention to what can be to do better, but it is definitely not possible to simply slide into some kind of general accusation, into politicking, and i, as the head of the subcommittee, on the issue of information policy, well, i analyze the influence of information, especially from the russian federation,