The Permanent Representatives of the European Union Member States have approved the opening of the sixth negotiation cluster on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU. The official decision is expected to be made on July 14.
This was reported by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka.
This is the "External Relations" cluster. It covers issues of common security and defense policy, trade, humanitarian aid, and development cooperation.
The official decision to open the EU cluster is to be made on July 14 at the Intergovernmental Conference.
On June 15, all 27 EU member states agreed to open the first cluster of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. There are six clusters in total. EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Cos said the EU hopes to open all of them in July.
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 the government changed in Hungary, the country lifted its 17-month veto on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU in June 2026.
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