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Blitz interview with Interfax-Ukraine of  Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos

Text: Dmytro Koshovyy

-- How was your first day in your new position in Kyiv?

-- I'm very happy that on my first day being Commissioner for Enlargement I visited Kiev, especially because enlargement is one of the priorities of the whole European Commission and it is also a priority for Ukraine, for your government, for your parliament and even for civil society which I met today.

Your country is doing immense progress. Making this amount of reforms in the time when the country is on war, it's something unprecedented and congratulations for this.

My task as Commissioner for Enlargement is to support your government to first start the negotiation process and then bring it to the end. This is tough work. It's a lot of technical work.It's a lot on both sides, in Brussels and also here.

We are now preparing everything possible, doing the screening and we hope that in some time in the first half of next year we will be able to open the first cluster which is fundamentals. This is the new methodology when we always start with the fundamentals and close with the fundamentals.

Today I've heard a wish that we could open as much as possible clusters next year. It's not only about opening, we have also to close it.

-- Are there any clusters that could be closed as early as next year?

-- No, this will take time but mostly it is up to a candidate country because it is a merit-based process. We will assist you, I will work day and night to help you to go through this process but most of the work is done on your side.

I am positively surprised how much energy I could feel with your president, Mr. Zelensky, with the president of the government. I met the