Zelenskyy Pushes for Progress on EU Membership Bid as Cyprus Takes on Euro Presidency

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed for progress on his country’s accession to the European Union (EU) during a meeting with the new president of the Council of the EU on Jan. 7.

Zelenskyy met with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia, on the day Cyprus formally took leadership of the EU institution.

Following his meeting, the Ukrainian president said in a post on X that he was working with Christodoulides “to make as much progress as possible during this period on opening negotiating clusters and on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.”

He added that he and the Cypriot president discussed strengthening sanctions against Russia, reinforcing air defenses, and the production and supply of drones.

Ukraine applied to join the EU at the end of February 2022, just days after Russia began its invasion, in a bid to orientate itself politically and economically toward Europe and the West.

Christodoulides said in a post on X that he had had a productive meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart.

“Cyprus reaffirms its steadfast commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Christodoulides said. “As a country that still lives with the consequences of illegal invasion and ongoing military occupation, we fully understand what is at stake.”

He added that Ukraine will be a “central priority” of Cyprus’s EU presidency, “and will work to ensure sustained support at all levels.”

The Council of the EU is one of the key institutions of the bloc, where national ministers from each of the 27 member states meet to discuss and adopt EU law. It operates a rotating six-month presidency, with Cyprus’s president leading the institution until June 30.

EU Committed to Expansion

In its statement of priorities for this term, Cyprus said it was “firmly committed” to advancing Brussels’ agenda of expanding the bloc’s membership.

In its 2025 annual report on enlargement published on Nov. 4, the European Commission praised accession states Ukraine, Montenegro, and others for reforms they had made in their countries as part of the process to becoming members. The commission, which is the EU’s executive branch, said that it could welcome new member states as early as 2030.

The accession process involves candidates aligning with the bloc’s foreign and security policies, committing to supporting free media, “cleaning up corruption,” and “cementing the rule of law,” according to remarks by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas published alongside the enlargement report.

In Ukraine’s individual report, the EU praised Kyiv for its resilience and commitment to its path to membership, despite the ongoing war with Russia. However, it said that Ukraine still needed to do more to tackle corruption.

Brussels highlighted the adoption of a contentious law in July that it said dismantled “important safeguards for the independence” of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions.

Following concerns raised by the EU and in the face of national protest at the time, the independence of the institutions was restored shortly thereafter.

Corruption Concerns

The EU then renewed its warning to Kyiv to tackle corruption on Nov. 13 following the uncovering and investigation of a graft scandal in the nation’s energy sector. The scandal had centered on an alleged corruption scheme involving Energoatom, a state enterprise running all four of the country’s nuclear power plants.

According to Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Energoatom’s contractors were forced to pay kickbacks and bribes to the scheme’s ring leaders, in exchange for keeping their status as suppliers and for not blocking their products and services. Investigators alleged that roughly 100 million Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $2.3 million, was funneled through this system.

On Dec. 11, Kyiv and Brussels agreed on an action plan to tackle corruption and strengthen democratic institutions in Ukraine as part of efforts to facilitate the country’s path to EU membership.

Measures that Ukraine agreed to included reforms to the judiciary, the prosecutor’s offices, and the State Bureau of Investigation; strengthening internal systems that prevent high-level corruption; and expanding the jurisdiction of National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Ukraine’s other anti-corruption body, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

Guy Birchall contributed to this report.

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