The United States welcomed the European Commission’s Enlargement Package recommending open negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, along with other countries.

“We welcome this announcement from the European Commission on its recommendations on EU enlargement, and we strongly support the EU aspirations of the 10 candidate and aspirant countries that were recognized”, - said the State Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel.

“This is... an EU-led process, but we believe that this is a pivotal moment for the transatlantic community, and we encourage candidate and aspirant countries to seize the momentum to realize their full potential”, - he added.

In its annual enlargement report, the EU executive also assigned candidate status — the first major step toward EU accession — to Georgia, and put off the start of accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina until after it fulfills a set of conditions.