The final green light to start accession negotiations will not be given by the European Commission, but by the member states, which must agree unanimously.
Negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU will start in the first half of 2024. This was announced by the deputy head of the presidential office, Ihor Zhovkva, on Wednesday, 11 October.
He specified that Belgium will hold the EU presidency at that time.
It is during the Belgian presidency of the EU Council in the first half of next year that the actual start of negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the EU will begin," he said.
Zhovkva added that Belgium is an ally of Ukraine and will support Kiev on the path to European integration.
The ally will support Ukraine from the very 'institutional heart' of the EU," he pointed out.
At the same time, the Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanyshyna, said that the EU member states might set additional conditions for Ukraine to start accession negotiations.
The most sceptical states are now supporting Ukraine's move before the start of negotiations. We feel support here, but we will negotiate with each state separately," she said.
According to Stefanyshyna, this means that by the end of the year Ukraine will need to implement additional agreements that will arise from member states as an additional condition for the start of negotiations.
We will remind, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the application for membership of Ukraine in the European Union at the end of February 2022, after the beginning of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. The EU granted Ukraine official candidate status in June 2022. At the same time, the European Commission made seven recommendations to Ukraine. Ukraine expects to implement all seven recommendations that were announced by the European Commission to open membership talks by the end of this year.
Eugenia Ruban writes about political and economic news. She looks at large-scale phenomena in Ukrainian politics and economics from the perspective of how they will affect ordinary Ukrainians.
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