Along with the leaders of Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, he backed granting "candidate country" status to Ukraine.
Candidate country status is an official step on the path towards full EU membership, which is one of Ukraine's goals. Currently Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are candidate countries, but Ukraine is not.
We, the Presidents of 🇧🇬🇨🇿🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🇵🇱🇸🇰🇸🇮, strongly believe that #Ukraine deserves receiving an immediate EU accession perspective. pic.twitter.com/3xWT9BCLzb
— Egils Levits (@valstsgriba) February 28, 2022
Negotiations are held with each candidate country to determine their ability to apply EU legislation and examine their possible request for transition periods. In order to conduct the accession negotiations, EU legislation and standards are divided into 35 chapters which are negotiated one by one. The process usually takes many years.
In Latvia's case it became a candidate country in 2000 and a full member of the EU in 2004, a relatively short period of time. In contrast Turkey has been a candidate country since 1999.
