EU: the 27 confirm the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova

The 27 countries of the European Union have confirmed the opening next Tuesday of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, announced Friday the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU on the X network.

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.

“We are looking forward to next week, on June 25, when Ukraine and the EU will hold their first intergovernmental conference, which will mark the effective start of the negotiation process”, declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 to such accession negotiations with the two former Soviet republics, in mid-December 2023.

But Hungary had until then been holding back the formal opening of negotiations with Ukraine, judging that the conditions were not met.

The European Commission, for its part, considered on June 7 that Ukraine and Moldova had fulfilled all the preconditions for the opening of formal negotiations.

The European executive had demanded measures from kyiv to combat corruption and the influence of the oligarchs. The Commission had also called for better consideration of minorities, a measure insistently demanded by Budapest, due to the presence of a Hungarian community in Ukraine.

In June 2022, the EU granted Ukraine candidate status for membership, in a highly symbolic gesture a few months after the start of the war unleashed by Moscow, as well as to neighboring Moldova.

The opening of negotiations is a step in a long and arduous accession process. The possible entry into the EU of Ukraine, a country of more than 40 million inhabitants, and an agricultural power, poses many difficulties, starting with that of financial aid.

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