European Council: EU to consider Ukraine's membership in coming days
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Following Ukraine’s request to suspend Russia from its membership of Interpol, Interpol General Secretariat says it cannot accept or reject the appeals on Russia's membership.
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European Council President Charles Michel
European Council President Charles Michel stated, on Monday, that the European Union will consider Ukraine's membership in the coming days.
"The EU's solidarity, friendship, and unprecedented assistance for #Ukraine are unwavering. We will discuss Ukraine's membership application in the coming days," Michel tweeted, although the EU had previously shot down a request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for "immediate" EU membership for his country.
The EU’s solidarity, friendship and unprecedented assistance for #Ukraine are unwavering.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 7, 2022
We will discuss Ukraine’s membership application in coming days.
It is worth mentioning that Volodymyr Zelensky signed the request for Ukraine's membership in the EU on February 28.
On March 1, an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament backed "granting Ukraine EU candidate status."
On its account, Russia's Foreign Ministry had previously stated that NATO should formally withdraw a 2008 proclamation that allowed Georgia and Ukraine, two former Soviet republics, to join the alliance.
The statement added, "In the fundamental interests of European security, it is necessary to officially disavow the decision of the 2008 NATO Bucharest summit that 'Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members."
Ahead of the special military operation, Moscow has been demanding a written commitment that Ukraine would never be able to join NATO and that the alliance would not place any strategic military equipment in certain countries in the region surrounding Russia. Washington failed to provide Moscow with such guarantees.
The expulsion of Russia from INTERPOL is unlikely
The press service of the organization told Sputnik, on Monday, that the General Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) can neither accept nor reject an appeal to suspend the membership of a particular country, adding that only the General Assembly of Interpol can decide on this issue.
"There is no provision in INTERPOL’s Constitution for the suspension, or exclusion, of a member country. Only the General Assembly, INTERPOL’s supreme governing body comprising representatives from each of its 195 member countries, can decide on issues relating to membership. It is therefore not within the purview of the General Secretariat to either accept or refuse, a request for a member country to be suspended or excluded," the press service said.
Earlier in the day, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel stated that the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand had written to Interpol requesting an urgent decision on Russia's exclusion from Interpol systems.
On February 28, Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs, Denys Monastyrskyi, demanded that Russia be "expelled" from the International Criminal Police Organization-INTERPOL.
Interpol, however, rejected the Ukrainian request to suspend Russia from the intergovernmental organization despite the United Kingdom and Poland supporting the suspension.
