EU wants to start membership talks with Ukraine by July 1

This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to Politico.

Today, representatives of the governments of 27 EU countries will discuss the Commission's draft framework for negotiations on Ukraine's and Moldova's accession to the EU, and time is of the essence. Hungary will become the EU Council's presidency on July 1.

One European official said that the Belgian presidency wants the talks to start at the Common Affairs Council, a meeting of EU ministers, on June 25.

While the European Commission's latest report on Ukraine noted some reforms that Kyiv still needs to implement before talks begin, officials say Ukraine has already done most of its homework. This includes reforms to protect ethnic and linguistic minorities, as recommended by the Venice Commission.

Few want to wait for another report to confirm Ukraine's progress in writing, fearing that the enlargement commissioner, Hungarian Oliver Varhelyi, could drag out the process.

"Varkhely will not want to do it very quickly," said one senior official.

Diplomats do not expect a deal to be concluded today, given the number of complex technical issues to be resolved. The idea is to start discussions at the ambassadorial level on sensitive issues.

Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 29/05/2024