• Baker McKenzie lawyers assisted with the completion of Parts I and II of the questionnaire of the European Commission related to Ukraine's application for membership in the European Union.
• The completion of the questionnaire marks a significant step in Ukraine's bid for the EU membership.
On 28 February 2022, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed Ukraine's application for membership in the European Union. During her visit to Kyiv on 8 April 2022, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, handed an EU candidacy questionnaire, an important document commencing the membership application review process, to the President of Ukraine. Ukraine expects to obtain the status of an EU candidate country in June 2022, when the European Council is scheduled to meet.
Serhiy Chorny, Managing Partner of the Kyiv office of Baker McKenzie, commented on this significant pro bono work of his Kyiv team as follows:
The lawyers of our Firm made their contributions to the glorious history of Ukraine since 1992, by assisting with significant acts establishing Ukraine's independence and thereafter helping to shape and improve legislation of our country and to bring it closer to the European standards. Now, our team is proud of contributing to the finalization of the documents purporting to achieve the EU candidate status for our country. Ukraine is regaining its membership in the European family by overcoming many challenges, including the Russian invasion. We have no doubt that Ukraine will become a very central and influential member of the European community. We lawyers do our small work to achieve this goal faster.
The Baker McKenzie team working on the project was led by Managing Partner Serhiy Chorny, and included Partners Hennadiy Voytsitskyi and Ihor Siusel, and Associates Bogdan Dyakovych, Hanna Smyrnova, Olga Gavrylyuk, Oleksandr Savvi, Mykyta Stebliuk, Tetyana Zhuravska, Anna Boyko, Olha Sviatenka, Polina Korotka and Veronika Kalyta.