Lhe 27 countries of the European Union have confirmed the opening next Tuesday of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU announced on Friday on the X network (formerly Twitter).
EU Finance Ministers, meeting on Friday in Luxembourg, adopted the framework for negotiations with these two candidate countries, confirming an agreement in principle by their ambassadors in Brussels reached last week. This agreement paves the way for the formal opening of negotiations on Tuesday in Luxembourg, the same source said.
An announcement welcomed by Ukraine
“We look forward to next week, June 25, when Ukraine and the EU will hold their first intergovernmental conference, which will mark the effective start of the negotiation process,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, welcoming the realization of a “European dream”.
Accession negotiations between the EU and a third country take place within the framework of an intergovernmental conference (IGC). The Twenty-Seven will first formally open discussions with Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon, then with Moldova, according to a diplomatic source. The heads of state and government of the European Union had opened the way for such accession negotiations with the two former Soviet republics, in mid-December 2023.
Conditions for opening negotiations
But Hungary has so far held back the formal opening of negotiations with Ukraine, judging that the conditions were not met. The European Commission, for its part, estimated on June 7 that Ukraine and Moldova had fulfilled all the prerequisites for opening formal negotiations. The European executive had demanded measures from kyiv to fight corruption and the influence of oligarchs. The Commission had also requested better consideration of minorities, a measure insisted on by Budapest, due to the presence of a Hungarian community in Ukraine.
The EU granted candidate status for membership to Ukraine in June 2022, in a highly symbolic gesture a few months after the start of the war triggered by Moscow, as well as to neighboring Moldova.
The opening of negotiations is a step in a long and arduous accession process. A possible entry into the EU of Ukraine, a country of more than 40 million inhabitants and an agricultural power, poses numerous difficulties, starting with that of financial aid.
