The EU Council officially opened two more negotiation clusters for Ukraine on accession to the European Union

The fourth intergovernmental conference "Ukraine — EU" was held in Luxembourg on October 13, at which negotiations on Cluster 2 "Internal Market" and Cluster 3 "Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth" were officially opened.

This is reported by a correspondent of Babel.

Cluster 2 covers the rules for integration into the EU single market, including the conditions for doing business and trade. Cluster 3 concerns the competitiveness of the economy, industrial development, innovation, education and working conditions.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos stated that reforms within these clusters should bring practical benefits to Ukrainians — facilitate trade with Europe, create conditions for investment, support business, and promote economic recovery.

“The opening of two new clusters is good news, but we won’t stop there,” Kos said. She said that the next step is to open the remaining two clusters as soon as possible.

Four of the six negotiation clusters are now open to Ukraine. Cluster 1 “Fundamentals” was opened in June, and Cluster 6 “Foreign Relations” in July.

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Vsevolod Chentsov said that Ukraine expects to open the last two clusters by the end of the year.

What are Ukraineʼs successes on its path to the EU?

Ukraine intensified cooperation with the EU in 2014, after the victory of the Revolution of Dignity. In the same year, the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament simultaneously approved the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

It entered into full force on September 1, 2017. Ukraineʼs path to membership in the European Union and NATO was enshrined in the Constitution in February 2019.

On February 28, 2022, Ukraine applied for membership in the European Union. On June 17, the European Commission recommended granting Ukraine candidate status for EU membership and set out a number of conditions that the country must meet before starting negotiations on EU membership. On June 23, EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit, where they granted Ukraine candidate status.

At the end of 2023, the European Union allowed negotiations to begin. They were formally launched in 2024, but the process slowed down, in particular due to the position of then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who blocked the opening of negotiation clusters.

After a change of government in Hungary, the country lifted its 17-month veto on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU in June 2026. However, within weeks, Hungary threatened to stop Ukraineʼs accession to the EU if Kyiv did not implement an agreement on the rights of Hungarians in Transcarpathia.

On October 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on teaching in the languages of national minorities and indigenous peoples.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.