Ukraine, Moldova begin long road to membership as EU formally opens talks

4 months ago 15

The European Union formally launched accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday (25 June), starting a long process that could once again redraw the geopolitical map of Europe.

The formal opening of talks – two years after the two applied to join – was set to be marked by two separate ‘intergovernmental conferences’ (IGCs) in Luxembourg, with EU ministers meeting with the two countries, the European Commission, and the Belgian EU Council presidency.

Kyiv and Chisinau launched their bids to join the EU in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Although accession talks usually take years to complete, EU ministers made it clear they saw it as a “historic” event.

“It is a clear demonstration of the EU’s unequivocal support to the EU membership perspective of Ukraine,” Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, whose country has been pushing to open the talks, said ahead of talks.

“Today is a historic day for Ukraine and Moldova but also for the EU,” Germany’s Europe Minister Anna Lührmann told reporters.

“Both countries have made enormous progress in the area of the rule of law, the fight against corruption and freedom of the press,” she added. Her words were echoed by many other ministers.

Long reform road ahead

Tuesday’s formal start of the talks marks just the beginning of a process of reforms that is likely to take years. Some EU candidates in the Western Balkans, like Montenegro and Serbia, started their accession talks more than a decade ago, with no end in sight.

The negotiating frameworks, drawn up to guide the accession talks and approved by EU member states last week, will be presented to both countries.

In parallel, both countries are undergoing a thorough screening process to map out how far their respective legislation already complies with EU standards and how much more reform work will be required.

Once the screening, which normally takes one to two years but according to EU diplomats coould in this case be concluded much faster, is finalised, the EU then has to start laying out conditions for negotiations on 35 negotiating chapters on a range of policy fields that cover the entire EU legislation.

However, it appears unlikely that there will be further progress onto the next step in the coming six months, when Hungary is expected to hold the EU’s rotating presidency.

“It’s very difficult to say at what stage Ukraine is,” Hungary’s Europe Minister Janos Boka told reporters in Luxembourg. “From what I see here as we speak, they are very far from meeting the accession criteria.”

The formal opening of EU accession chapters currently requires unanimity among EU27 member states.

Some EU diplomats believe the bloc could abandon voting by unanimity in the interim stages of enlargement – such as the opening of chapters – and move to qualified majority voting (QMV).

Under the EU’s existing legal framework, this could be made possible by a so-called passerelle clause, which enables member states to change the bloc’s decision-making rules ad hoc and adopt QMV in certain foreign policy matters, which also includes enlargement.

Boost in difficult times

“We will never be derailed from our path to a united Europe and to our common home of all European nations,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, hailing the progress as a “historic day”.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu said the country’s future is “within the European family”. “We are stronger together.”

European Council President Charles Michel described the step as “a proud moment for both nations and a strategic step for the EU”.

“Ukraine’s efforts are even more admirable considering Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has brought about unprecedented hardship and adversity,” Michel added.

“The people of Ukraine have shown extraordinary courage and solidarity in defending their sovereignty and their European future,” he added.

Michel has previously called for the EU itself to speed up its preparations for enlargement, suggesting the bloc should be ready to accept new members by 2030.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the opening of talks “very good news for the people of Ukraine, Moldova, and the entire European Union.”

“The path ahead will be challenging but full of opportunities,” she said.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]