Time has come to start talks on Ukraine's EU membership - Zelensky

MOSCOW. May 10 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky believes that the time has already come to make a positive decision on starting negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union.

"The time has long since come to remove the artificial potential uncertainty in relations between Ukraine and the European Union. It is time for a positive decision to launch negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union," Ukrainian media quoted Zelensky as saying at a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kiev on Tuesday.

The European Commission will hopefully present its positive interim assessment as soon as August regarding Ukraine's progress on its European integration path, he said.

Zelensky called on Ukraine's neighbors and other EU states to refrain from any decisions on trade with Ukraine without prior consultations with it.

"We [von der Leyen and Zelensky] discussed the situation surrounding the export of our agricultural products. We have a mutual agreement on the importance of Ukraine's contribution to global food security [...] Unfortunately, we have encountered problems in areas where the strong demonstration of solidarity should have continued [...] Protectionist measures [in trade] by our neighbors cannot but disappoint us," he said.

Any restrictions on Ukrainian exports are unacceptable today, he said.

In this context, Zelensky proposed setting up an advisory group with Ukraine's neighbors and other EU states to monitor problems in trade.

"We propose establishing an advisory group to monitor relevant issues and refraining from any decisions on trade without consulting Ukraine first," he said.

Zelensky said he expects the EU to make strong decisions and to lift all trade restrictions as soon as possible.

"If there is political will, and our negotiations today show that there is such will, we will be able to find optimal and truly strong solutions that will protect the interests of both Europe as a whole and Ukrainians, who suffer from export restrictions imposed on us," the president said.

Von der Leyen, for her part, confirmed that such an advisory group on Ukrainian exports, including grain, would be created in the future.

She also described the grain topic as a "challenging situation".

"The immediate priority now is that the grain transit goes seamlessly and at the lowest possible cost outside of Ukraine towards the European Union. This requires very close cooperation of the different stakeholders. Therefore, we will jointly set up a coordination platform," von der Leyen said.