The European Commission has initiated the preparation of an enlargement report, expected to recommend the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

Rikard Jozwiak, a journalist of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said the European Commission's report on enlargement was expected to be issued in the second half of October.

"State of play is that there will be recommendations for Ukraine [and] Moldova to start EU accession talks [and] Georgia to get candidate status," Jozwiak added.

drafting of European Commission enlargement report due in 2nd half of Oct has started. state of play is that there will be recommendations for #Ukraine & #Moldova to start EU accession talks & #Georgia to get candidate status. But consensus of 27 EU members in Dec still needed

— Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) August 8, 2023

The Radio Liberty journalist clarified that the European Commission has not yet abandoned the idea of a "conditional" candidate status for Georgia, meaning it must fulfil certain conditions and criteria for the next stage (i.e. the start of negotiations).

He also said EU leaders are expected to finally approve these decisions at the December summit.

At the end of June last year, EU leaders decided to recognise Georgia's European perspective, but unlike Ukraine and Moldova, the country will be granted candidate status only after a set of reforms.

Earlier this year, the European Commission was reportedly considering recommending that EU member states start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova and grant candidate status to Georgia.