BRUSSELS, May 1 – On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the largest wave of enlargement in the history of the European Union, High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, issued a statement stating that Ukraine and other candidate countries have a historic opportunity to link their future with the EU.

The text of the statement was released in Brussels by the EU diplomatic service (EEAS) on Wednesday.

As it is known, twenty years ago, at a ceremony in Strasbourg on May 1, 2004, the heads of parliaments of the acceding countries presented national flags to the then President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox. The new EU members are Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus.