Ukraine has met conditions for opening first EU accession cluster – von der Leyen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that the issue of opening negotiating clusters for Ukraine and Moldova will be considered at the European Council meeting on 18-19 June. According to her, both countries have met all the necessary conditions for opening the first cluster, "Fundamentals".
As Censor.NET reports, citing European Pravda, Ursula von der Leyen said this following talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar on Friday, 29 May.
When the opening of clusters will be discussed
The European Commission president promised that the opening of clusters for Ukraine would be discussed at the EU leaders’ summit on 18-19 June.
"We discussed many topics (with Prime Minister Magyar), including the accession (to the EU) of candidate countries. I want to emphasize here, and we discussed this, that this is a merit-based process. And our position is very clear: Ukraine and Moldova have met all the conditions necessary to open the Fundamentals cluster, the first cluster," von der Leyen stressed.
It should be noted that von der Leyen did not give a clear signal on whether the first cluster for Ukraine could be opened during the June European Council meeting or (as planned under the best-case scenario), during the meeting of the EU General Affairs Council on 16 June.
She stressed that Ukraine and Moldova had "worked hard on the necessary reforms and delivered results in these reforms, so there is no reason to delay this process".
"We will certainly discuss this at the European Council," the European Commission president said.
Background
- Earlier, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said that the first negotiating cluster, "Fundamentals", on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union could be opened as early as June.
