Poland, Slovakia vow to lobby for Ukraine's EU candidate status

Poland and Slovakia will lobby for Ukraine to be granted prompt candidate status to join the European Union, Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, said after meeting with his Slovak counterpart.

Duda paid a visit to Bratislava on Wednesday, where he held talks with Zuzana Caputova, the Slovak president.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Duda said that he had accepted Caputova's proposal to "undertake a kind of a lobbying mission for Ukraine among our colleagues in the European Union countries in Western Europe".

"Especially where there are doubts as to whether Ukraine should get this candidate status quickly," he added.

Referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Caputova suggested that she and Duda could together visit European leaders who are reluctant to offer Ukraine the status of an EU candidate country.

Caputova said that the two "should together visit some Western leaders who present a more moderate stance when it comes to the European Union's candidate status for Ukraine".

According to Duda, the granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine is important because "Ukrainian society now needs to feel it is accepted by the West"

"We have no doubts that (Ukraine) should get this status as soon as possible and we will be... trying to win support for this," he said.

Ukraine has already submitted the necessary documents, as required by the European Commission (EC), but the EC's potential recommendation for granting candidate status must be approved by EU leaders.

A discussion of the issue is expected at an EU summit in late June.