A week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed off on his country's formal application to join the European Union, EU leaders have pledged to "strengthen bonds" and "deepen the partnership" between Ukraine and the bloc. This falls short of the promise to speed up the candidacy procedure that some had been calling for. But Croatia's prime minister told FRANCE 24 that the 27 member states have sent a "strong political signal". Andrej Plenkovic spoke to our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson during this week's EU summit in Versailles.
"In Versailles, we sent a strong political signal saying that we want to intensify relations with Ukraine in every single possible way that we can in order to pursue its European path," Plenkovic told FRANCE 24.