BRUSSELS, September 28. /TASS/. The European Union has begun developing clear phased plans for membership for four candidate countries, Politico reported, citing sources.

According to the sources, European Commission officials are working on roadmaps for Albania, Moldova, Ukraine and Montenegro. These countries are considered the leading candidates for EU membership, but their accession processes have been delayed, the newspaper said. The new action plans could for the first time provide them with clear guarantees and deadlines for completing accession talks. The roadmaps will specify what is required from each candidate country and create obligations for current EU members, which will subsequently have to approve the continuation of the integration process, the newspaper added.

The sources stressed that Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey will not receive roadmaps because they are at earlier stages of the EU accession process.

Ukraine has held candidate status for EU membership since 2022. On July 14, Irish European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne said that the European Union had begun negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU under the second of the six negotiation clusters. The negotiations are split into 33 negotiation sections, or chapters, which are unevenly distributed across the six negotiation clusters. The negotiations do not guarantee membership or establish a timeline. For instance, Turkey, whose accession is not expected in the foreseeable future, started negotiations in 2005.