European Council President Charles Michel will call on the EU to be prepared to accept new member countries by 2030.

He will make this statement today at the International Strategic Forum in Bled, Slovenia, as reported by the Financial Times, which has reviewed the official's speech.

According to the Financial Times, Michel will point out that as the EU prepares its next strategic agenda, "we must set ourselves a clear goal . . . we must be ready, on both sides, by 2030 to enlarge.."

"We must now address enlargement as one of our major challenges. Both for the EU and for its future member states," Michel will say, as stated in the article.

"This is ambitious, but necessary. It shows that we are serious. The window of opportunity is open. We need to act on it," the Financial Times quotes Michel's probable speech.

The Bled Strategic Forum and an audience set to include leaders from candidate countries Moldova, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna stated that Ukraine would not fully meet all seven EC criteria by October. However, accession talks will still begin.

The Deputy Prime Minister noted that the political decision to start negotiations on Ukraine's EU membership will be made. She believes December is the "last opportunity to make a political decision to start negotiations."

In June, the European Commission presented an oral assessment of Ukraine's progress towards the EU. The European Commission believes that Ukraine has fully implemented two out of seven conditions necessary to open accession negotiations, and progress has been made on the remaining conditions.