Ukraine to draft public roadmap of integration with EU - Zelensky

MOSCOW. June 30 (Interfax) - Ukraine will draft a public roadmap of integration with the European Union, and the document will be presented on July 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"We will keep doing what brings us closer to a full-fledged membership in the European Union. The nation will have a respective document, a clear roadmap, which everyone can check for what needs to be done by government institutions so that we do our part of the job on the path to the EU," Zelensky said in a video address in the early hours of Thursday.

The document will be presented as early as on July 1, Ukrainian media outlets quoted Zelensky as saying.

According to Secretary of the National Council for the Recovery of Ukraine Daniil Hetmantsev, the Ukraine Recovery Plan to be presented at a conference in Lugano, Switzerland, on July 4 envisages new mechanisms to manage Ukraine's European integration.

"The document envisages both the necessary measures of national recovery and the creation of new management and decision-making systems in the context of Ukraine's status as an EU candidate," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Hetmantsev as saying on social media on Thursday. The statement was made after the third meeting of the Advisory Board of the National Council.

The meeting addressed the final edition of the Recovery Plan. A number of critical remarks will be taken into account, and consultations will be held before the Lugano conference to discuss mechanisms of the plan's transparent financing and partners' control over the spending of funds.

Sources in Kyiv said earlier that the Recovery Plan might propose a substantial reduction of the number of ministries and public-sector employees in Ukraine. For instance, the possibility of leaving 12 ministries out of current 20 has been discussed.