EU Commissioner Kos on opening of all negotiation clusters with Ukraine: "I am confident this will happen this year"
The European Commission is actively engaged in the negotiation process with Ukraine, which is taking place at various levels.
According to Censor.NET with reference to Interfax-Ukraine, this was stated by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos at a press conference at the EU-Ukraine business summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Thus, answering a question about the Hungarian prime minister's resistance, she said: "Of course, he (Orban- Ed.) is wrong, because in the future we will have Ukraine as one of the EU members. We are working on it."
According to her, the accession negotiation process takes place at different levels, and one of the levels is that the results of the screening are discussed chapter by chapter.
"We are halfway there, and Olha (Stefanishyna – Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister – Ed.) and I often say that we push each other toward swift and successful action. What we mean is that if we continue in this spirit, and if the entire European Commission team — nearly 1,000 people in Brussels — keeps working on this every day, we will be able to complete all selection processes within this year," Kos emphasized.
She added that in this way the European Commission will be ready for the moment when the European Council will be able to decide on the opening of all clusters.
"I am confident that this will happen this year," Kos emphasized.
She added that work with Hungary is underway and will continue in parallel.
"We have to take into account that our member states have their own specific interests, but whatever we do, we have to do it in good faith and with the idea of reaching a compromise. And this is what we are working on now," she said.
As a reminder, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that despite constant promises, Ukraine has not returned the minority rights in Zakarpattia region that were taken away from the Hungarian community in 2015, and as long as this situation persists, there can be no progress in negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.
