The EU has unveiled plans to hand seats in the European Parliament to unelected MEPs from Ukraine and Moldova as part of an attempt to advance its plan for enlargement.
Parliament President Roberta Metsola has revealed that the two countries, which are candidates to join the EU, could send "observer" MEPs to Brussels and Strasbourg if there is more progress on their membership negotiations.
The MEPs would not be elected and would have no voting rights. They would be able to speak in committees but not in plenary sessions.
The benefit of having observer MEPs would come after other benefits are bestowed on the candidate countries, such as joining the Erasmus program or single market access, Metsola told Politico.
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Yevheniia Kravchuk, deputy leader of Volodymyr Zelensky’s party in the Ukrainian parliament, said: "It could be a very useful format for Ukraine".
She suggested it should be implemented as soon as the next European Parliament term.
David Arakhamia, the Servant of the People party faction leader, told Politico that as many as 30 MPs are ready to participate already.
He said: "If the political decision will be made, we will join immediately."
Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, earlier last month said that Ukraine and the Western Balkans need to gain EU member status "quickly".
Speaking at a meeting of foreign ministers in Spain, he said: "The Spanish presidency is proposing … to hold a ministerial meeting together with the Western Balkans ministers.
"We will do it at the end of next month."
He added: "The issue of enlargement has been floating over our discussions.
"Ukraine has to become a member of the European Union. The Western Balkans also. Quickly."
Ursula von der Leyen put "enlargement" of the bloc at the forefront of her State of the European Union address last month, saying: "History is now calling us to work on completing our union".
She told the European Parliament: "In a world where some are trying to pick off countries one by one, we cannot afford to leave our fellow Europeans behind.
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Ursula von der Leyen put "enlargement" of the bloc at the forefront of her State of the European Union address last month
"In a world where size and weight matters, it is clearly in our interests to complete our union.
"But beyond the politics and geopolitics of it, we need to picture what is at stake.
"We need to set out a vision for successful enlargement - a union complete with over 500 million people living in a free democratic and prosperous union.
"A union complete with young people who can live study and work in complete freedom. A union complete with vibrant democracies."
