German opposition calls on Government to grant Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova candidate status. As Gunther Krichbaum, an MP from the Christian Democratic Union in the Bundestag, said, it was “in Germany’s interest” to “open a path” to the European Union for these countries.

He also called on the German Government to work within the framework of the EU accession process to ensure “new opportunities” for participation in joint programmes - such as those in the area of common foreign, security and defence policy - were “opened up” for the candidate countries before their full membership.

“The candidate countries must continue to be consistently asked to meet the criteria for democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as well as to step up the fight against corruption. They would also have to immediately implement the EU decisions on the common foreign and security policy”, - Krichbaum added.