Negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the union have begun in the European Union
The European Union (EU) has begun lengthy negotiations on Ukraine’s entry into the union. Representatives of the Council of Europe informed about this on Tuesday, June 25.
“Kyiv has begun a long process of negotiations on joining the European Union. The first meeting of the EU-Ukraine Intergovernmental Conference opened in Luxembourg,” the statement says.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called the start of negotiations on accession to the EU a historic event. On his page on the social network X politician statedthat his country “is and will always be part of a united Europe.”
The main stage of negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the EU will begin no earlier than 2025
Despite the fact that the official date for the start of negotiations on Kyiv’s membership in the EU is June 25, 2024, the main stage of the negotiation process will not begin until 2025.
“EU officials expect substantive talks to begin under Poland’s presidency of the bloc on January 1,” the Financial Times reported.
Until next year, the Ukrainian side will have to study and adopt a number of reforms, as well as significantly change its legislation. In addition, an obstacle to Ukraine’s rapid entry into the union will be Hungary’s presidency of the EU Council, which will begin on July 1. Next after Budapest in the chairmanship schedule is Warsaw, which will be vested with the corresponding powers on January 1, 2025. Only with her arrival will substantive discussions of Ukraine’s membership in the EU receive the necessary support.
Ukraine can get into the EU bypassing other candidate countries
The head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, said that there is no shortcut to joining the EU. Commenting on the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the association, the politician noted that after joining the EU, new opportunities will open up for the country.
They know that their path will be difficult and demanding. Affiliation negotiations are intended to prepare candidates for the responsibilities of membership. That’s why there’s no shortcut to this
Currently EU candidate status have nine countries – Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The simultaneous start of negotiations cannot guarantee that countries will become members of the community at the same time. The example of Ukraine was unprecedented – the country was significantly ahead of other states in terms of time to obtain candidate status. Thus, Kyiv submitted an application on February 28, 2022, and already on June 23 of the same year, the European Council granted Kyiv the corresponding status.
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At the same time, Turkey, which applied for membership in the bloc in 1987, was able to obtain candidate status only 12 years later, in 1999. The first negotiations on the country’s accession to the organization were scheduled by the European Council for October 3, 2005, but they were unsuccessful. In 2017, the European Parliament adopted a resolution according to which negotiations on Ankara’s membership were suspended until the country’s leadership made the necessary amendments to the constitution. In 2023, the European Parliament proposed completing negotiations on the country’s membership in the EU.
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