The European Council has decided to recognize Georgia’s European perspective, while Ukraine and Moldova received the EU candidate status.

European Council President, Charles Michel, said: “the EUCO decided to recognize the European perspective of Georgia and is ready to grant candidate status once the outstanding priorities are addressed.”

“Congratulations to the Georgian people. A historic moment in EU-Georgia relations: Georgia’s future lies within the EU,” he tweeted.

Historic agreement. Historic decision.

Today, we have decided to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.

And we are ready to grant candidate status to Georgia once priorities will be addressed.

🇪🇺🇺🇦🇲🇩🇬🇪#EUCO pic.twitter.com/c5JikGSSyE

— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) June 23, 2022

“The European Council recognises the European perspective of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. The future of these countries and their citizens lies within the European Union.

The European Council has decided to grant the status of candidate country to Ukraine and to the Republic of Moldova.

The Commission is invited to report to the Council on the fulfilment of the conditions specified in the Commission’s opinions on the respective membership applications as part of its regular enlargement package. The Council will decide on further steps once all these conditions are fully met.

The European Council is ready to grant the status of candidate country to Georgia once the priorities specified in the Commission’s opinion on Georgia’s membership application have been addressed,” reads the EC’s official document.

In her Tweet, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Associated Trio countries are “part of our European family and today’s historic decision by Leaders confirms that.”

“Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia all have work to do before moving to the next stage of the process. I know that they will move swiftly. They know how crucial this is for their democracies, their economies, and their citizens,” she went on.

“This decision strengthens us all. It strengthens Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, in the face of Russian imperialism. And it strengthens the EU. Because it shows once again to the world that we are united and strong in the face of external threats,” European Commission President asserted.

Today is a good day for Europe.

Congratulations to President @ZelenskyyUA President @Sandumaiamd and Prime Minister @GharibashviliGe

Your countries are part of our European family.

And today’s historic decision by Leaders confirms that. pic.twitter.com/lAkv8Bq5fs

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 23, 2022