EU plans to start talks on Ukraine's accession in June — Politico

Politico reported the information.

Despite the fact that last December EU leaders expressed their desire for Ukraine and Moldova to join the union, the formal legal procedure for starting membership talks was delayed due to opposition from Hungary.

Currently, diplomats from the EU and Kyiv are working intensively to persuade the Hungarian government to agree to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. 

According to the five diplomats, the goal of these efforts is to start official talks as early as June 25.

Thus, after the April talks between Andriy Yermak and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, “the parties noted the positive dynamic of the dialogue.” According to one of the diplomats, Kyiv has responded to the 11-point list set out by Budapest and is awaiting Hungary's response.

According to one EU diplomat, Hungary is likely eager to resolve Ukraine's EU accession negotiations before it takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council in July. 

“There was a sense of not doing this before the [June 9 European Parliament] election because it could become an election issue,” the European diplomat explained.

The next step in the accession process is to start official negotiations through an intergovernmental conference with Ukraine. For this to happen, EU countries must agree on the so-called framework for negotiations. According to the outlet, since the European Commission sent this document in March, 27 capitals have been negotiating on it. 

At the moment, according to the two diplomats, negotiations at the technical level are going well. They expect the new draft to be sent to EU ambassadors in the coming weeks so that they can address the most pressing issues. 

Belgian officials have already scheduled an intergovernmental conference for June 25, a few days before Budapest takes over the EU presidency on July 1. However, as one diplomat says, “as always, it is impossible to predict what Hungary will do until we hear from Orbán himself.” 

• On November 8, 2023, the European Commission recommended starting the process of negotiating Ukraine's accession to the EU.
• On February 21, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the negotiation framework for Ukraine's accession to the EU would be ready in early summer, after the European elections.
• On February 22, President Zelenskiy said that Ukraine's goal was to start EU accession talks by June.
• On May 1, the presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia called for intergovernmental conferences with Ukraine and Moldova on EU accession.