EU Commission expected to recommend Ukraine accession talks, with conditions

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The European Commission is expected to recommend formally opening Ukraine’s EU accession talks on Wednesday (8 November) but is likely to insist on the need for Kyiv to fully meet the previously set conditions.

The decision on Ukraine is expected to be formally taken on Tuesday and the Commission’s recommendation will then need to be approved by EU leaders when they meet for a regular summit in Brussels in mid-December.

The EU executive is expected to present its annual enlargement progress report on Wednesday, which next to the Western Balkans six and Turkey will for the first time include Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia.

Ahead of the report, the European Commissioner’s heads of cabinets (HEBDO) were expected to meet at 13:00 CET on Tuesday to likely recommend that member states open formal accession talks with Ukraine upon the full completion of the seven reform recommendations spelt out by the EU’s executive last year in June.

Radio Svoboda first reported on an internal Commission document in which the EU’s executive considers four of the seven criteria to have been fully fulfilled, while the other three would still require further implementation.

The last outstanding recommendations include reforms and legislation on national minorities, anti-corruption as well as progress on “de-oligarchisation” and lobbying, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke to Euractiv on condition of anonymity.

The final wording is yet to be finalised, they said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday (4 November) told reporters in Kyiv Ukraine has made “excellent progress” on the conditions for future EU accession and told Ukraine’s parliament the country had “already completed way over 90%” of its required steps.

Von der Leyen added she was “confident that you [Ukraine] can reach your ambitious goal” of starting accession negotiations by the end of this year.

But putting a percentage to reform progress has taken Ukrainian officials by surprise, Euractiv understands.

“This kind of messaging is generally negative. Even 99.9% is negative messaging to Ukraine because we are talking about existential transformations of the country,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, in charge of EU integration, told a group of reporters, including Euractiv, in Kyiv.

“It just sounds like ‘you have done 90% and you [only] have three days to deliver on the rest’,” Stefanishyna said.

“The more we are delivering, the more issues we’re raising (. . .) this will in no way lead you to 100%.”

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]