EU Officially Begins Accession Talks with Ukraine

The first meeting of the Conference on Ukraine's Accession to the European Union at the ministerial level will take place in Luxembourg today. The meeting will take place following the European Council's decision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine on 14 December 2023, the European Council's official website reports.

The intergovernmental conference with Ukraine will start at 15:30, and with Moldova at 18:00 local time.

After the start of the talks, 35 negotiating chapters will be opened. Ukraine will enter the negotiations under several chapters at once, using a cluster approach. There will be six clusters that unite several chapters.

The day before, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine had set a record by going from applying for EU membership to starting negotiations in just over two years - faster than any other candidate in history. 

"At the same time, no discounts were made. Ukraine has diligently fulfilled all the requirements and implemented critical reforms to bring this historic day closer. We have achieved this despite an all-out war for our survival," the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.

He believes that after the completion of the EU accession negotiations, Ukraine will be three steps away from "full membership in the European Union". These steps will be:

the European Commission's conclusion that the negotiations have been successfully concluded, and that Ukraine has met the accession criteria;

a decision to sign the Agreement on Ukraine's accession to the EU;

ratification of the agreement by the parliaments of the EU member states and Ukraine's full membership in the EU.

Earlier, European Council President Charles Michel suggested that Ukraine could become an EU member by 2030 if Moldova and Ukraine "do their homework" for the EU.