Ukraine gained the status of a partner-participant of the Three Seas (Trimorie) initiative, also known as the Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea Initiative. The countries participating in the initiative have created a new partnership format.
The President of Poland Andrzej Duda announced this at the summit of the initiative on Monday in Riga, TVN 24 reports.
According to him, in contrast to the strategic partnership linking the Trimorie countries with the U.S., the UK or the European Commission, the new form of partnership is addressed to potential EU member states.
"We have decided to create a special new type of partnership with the Three Seas Initiative — apart from the strategic partnership — partnership through participation. This is a new type of partnership, intended not only for Ukraine. Today we have granted it to Ukraine, but we proceed from the fact that the same partnership can be shared by those countries that are located in Central Europe and are not members of the European Union, but strive to join it," Duda said.
The President of Poland added that all countries of the Trimorie were in favor of granting Ukraine the official status of an EU candidate, expressing the hope that a decision on this matter would be made at the end of this week.
Recall that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking at the summit of the Initiative on Monday via video link, said that Ukraine should become a member of the Trimorie.
He called on the countries participating in the Initiative to find a format the accession could be realized in.
The Three Seas Initiative, also known as the Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea Initiative or Trimorie, is an association of 12 EU states located in Central and Eastern Europe. The territory of the participating countries has access to the Adriatic, Baltic, and Black Seas. The initiative was established in 2016 as a platform for economic cooperation between the Central European countries of the EU.
As reported, on June 17, the European Commission recommended granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership. At the same time, the conditions that must be met in order to move from candidates to members of the Union were laid out.
The European Commission will monitor Ukraine's progress in implementing these steps and report on them, along with a detailed assessment of the country, until the end of 2022.
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