the European Union and kyiv officially begin accession negotiations

Start of the process. The European Union on one side, Ukraine and Moldova on the other, officially begin negotiations on Tuesday June 25 in Luxembourg, within the framework of an intergovernmental conference (IGC), supposed to allow these two countries to one day be full members of the EU. The latter granted Ukraine the status of candidate for membership 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.

Russia has sought by all means to obstruct this process, which promises to be long and difficult, leading these two former Soviet republics to anchor themselves to Europe. “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”declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, welcoming the achievement of a “European dream”.

The opening of these talks is the result of a hard-won agreement by 26 EU countries, which were forced to compete in ingenuity to convince the 27th, Viktor Orban’s Hungary, not to block the process. The EU member state closest to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Hungary was opposed to it, as it also blocked all European military aid to kyiv. He finally agreed to leave the summit table of the leaders of the Twenty-Seven in December, until his 26 counterparts decided to open these accession negotiations with kyiv and Chisinau.

The European Commission assessed on June 7 that Ukraine and Moldova had now fulfilled all the prerequisites for such accession. The European executive has demanded measures from kyiv to fight corruption and the influence of oligarchs. The Commission also asked for better consideration of minorities, a measure insisted on by Budapest due to the presence of a Hungarian community in Ukraine. This membership process should not be completed for several months.