Ukraine’s EU accession: Denmark works to advance negotiations without opening clusters
Photo: Danish Minister for European Affairs Marie Bjerre (Getty Images)
Denmark is working on developing mechanisms to advance negotiations with Ukraine on EU accession and implement reforms, while Hungary continues to block the opening of negotiation clusters, said Danish Minister for European Affairs, Marie Bjerre, on the sidelines of the EU General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
According to her, Denmark is preparing political and practical measures that will allow negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership to continue without opening the formal negotiation clusters.
"We are still pressing Hungary. Our initial goal is still to open cluster one and, preferably, also more clusters. Ukraine would be ready to open all clusters this year," Bjerre said.
She added that it is what the European Commission says.
"We do realize that Hungary is still blocking, and at the same time, we are also working on other political or practical measures to see how we can move forward with the negotiation process without formally opening the clusters," the Danish Minister for European Affairs stated.
According to her, this means that once the clusters are officially opened, they can be closed fairly quickly, bringing Ukraine closer to EU membership.
Bjerre added that at the last informal meeting of EU affairs ministers in Copenhagen, the issue of enlargement was put on the agenda, and all member states, except Hungary, stated that they want negotiations with Ukraine to move forward.
Ukraine’s EU accession
The European Union cannot start accession negotiations with Ukraine solely because of the pro-Russian position of Hungary, which has vetoed the start of talks.
At the same time, Lithuania proposed a plan to begin accession negotiations without Hungary’s consent. According to Vilnius’ idea, a technical launch of negotiations could be carried out with the approval of the 26 other EU member states.
European Council President António Costa also believes that negotiations on Ukraine’s EU accession should continue despite Hungary’s veto.
Meanwhile, Ukraine expects EU countries to make a decision on the start of accession talks in the near future.
Yesterday, it was reported that Ukraine and the EU have completed the screening of the final negotiation cluster for EU accession.
