EU and Ukraine officially begin accession negotiations
The European Union on one side, Ukraine and Moldova on the other, officially launch negotiations on Tuesday in Luxembourg intended to allow these two countries to one day be full members of the EU. Russia has sought by all means to obstruct this process, which promises to be long and difficult, leading these two former Soviet republics to anchor themselves to Europe.
The Twenty-Seven will first formally open discussions with Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 p.m., then with Moldova, according to a diplomatic source. The opening of these talks is the result of a hard-won agreement by 26 EU countries, which were forced to compete in ingenuity to convince the 27th, Viktor Orban’s Hungary, not to block the process.
The Hungarian Prime Minister fiercely opposed any accession discussions with Ukraine, judging that this country was not ready. Viktor Orban finally agreed to leave the summit table of the leaders of the Twenty-Seven in December, until his 26 counterparts decided to open these accession negotiations with kyiv and Chisinau.
Once the intergovernmental conference is formally opened, negotiators will first review the legislation of the two countries to check whether it is compatible with that of the EU. This stage, “screening” in Brussels jargon, normally lasts one to two years, a diplomatic source explained. But in the case of Ukraine or Moldova, things will go faster because “we already have a fairly clear idea” of the situation, underlined this European diplomat, on condition of anonymity.
