Earlier, at a press conference following the informal EU summit in Granada, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that “EU membership is given on the merits of the candidate countries.” According to her, the European Commission’s report on the readiness of candidate countries for EU membership will arrive in early November, and the EU countries will then discuss it at a summit in December.

“That is, the criteria have already been canceled. What remains are the “merits.” Now membership can only be earned. Obviously, the only option to do this is to curry favor in the field of Russophobia,” Zakharova wrote.