The parties recalled the historical decisions of the European Council to grant Ukraine candidate status in June 2022 and to open accession negotiations in December 2023. They acknowledged that guaranteeing human rights is essential to the Copenhagen criteria.
The parties discussed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law violations by the Russian Federation in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion and war of aggression. Those include inhumane treatment of prisoners of war, arbitrary deprivation of life and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, deportation of civilians (including children) to Russia and Belarus from the territories occupied by Russia, conflict-related sexual violence, and discrimination and persecution of Indigenous peoples.
