EU sees fresh progress in Ukraine's membership talks, media says
Photo: Meeting of European Union leaders (Getty Images)
Ukraine and the European Union may open two accession negotiation clusters as early as June this year, reports Radio Liberty.
According to an internal document of the EU Council, the expansion of the negotiation agenda became possible thanks to positive momentum in relations with Budapest. Consultations between Ukraine and Hungary on the rights of the Hungarian national minority are currently progressing successfully.
This progress allows the European side to consider opening not one, but two negotiation clusters at once.
Preliminarily, the intergovernmental conference is planned for June 15 in Luxembourg. At the same time, the EU stresses that this schedule is not final and may still change.
The Presidency reaffirmed its objective of holding intergovernmental conferences before the June General Affairs Council and most likely on June 15 following the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, while emphasizing that the process will require considerable flexibility and may involve last-minute adjustments, the document says.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the EU to launch the first accession negotiation cluster with Ukraine as soon as possible. He stressed that bilateral disputes between Kyiv and Budapest should not become an obstacle to Ukraine's European integration.
Brussels previously said that Ukraine is capable of completing most stages of the EU membership negotiation process within the next 12–18 months. Under such a scenario, Kyiv could theoretically move on to signing an accession agreement with the EU as early as 2027.
The European Commission has already approved a preliminary schedule for Ukraine's accession talks. Under the plan, Brussels intends to propose opening the first negotiation cluster in mid-June.
