Politico: The EU wants to start negotiations on Ukraineʼs membership in June

In Brussels, they are insisting that official negotiations on Ukraineʼs membership in the European Union start on June 25.

Politico writes about this with reference to sources.

Currently, European and Ukrainian diplomats are actively working to convince the Hungarian government to agree to the start of negotiations on Ukraineʼs accession. They resolve with Budapest the issue of Hungarian minorities in Ukraine.

One EU diplomat suggested that Hungary is likely to want to move Ukraineʼs accession talks out of the way before it takes over the six-month presidency of the EU Council.

"There was a feeling that it shouldnʼt be done before the [June 9 European Parliament elections] because it could become an election issue," a European EU diplomat said.

Ukraine and pro-Ukrainian forces in the EU are calling for an intergovernmental conference between Brussels and Kyiv before Hungary takes over the presidency of the EU Council on July 1. The start of official negotiations through an intergovernmental conference with Ukraine is actually the start of membership negotiations.

For this, the EU countries must agree on the so-called negotiation framework. So far, the negotiations at the technical level have been successful, but Hungary is demanding more guarantees for improving the legal protection of minorities in Ukraine.

• In March, the European Commission prepared a negotiating framework for Ukraineʼs membership in the EU.