On July 22, the EU will make another attempt to break the deadlock in Ukraine's accession talks
On July 22, the EU Council Working Group on Enlargement (COELA) will consider for the second time the approval of the screening results for Negotiation Clusters No. 2 “Internal Market” and No. 3 “Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth” for Ukraine and Moldova.
If member states reach a consensus, the European Union will be able to begin the technical procedure for opening new negotiation clusters regarding Ukraine’s accession to the EU. This requires the unanimous support of all member states.
A previous attempt on July 17 ended without results due to a veto by Hungary. Budapest agreed to support opening the cluster only for Moldova, but most EU countries opposed splitting the negotiation process.
The July 22 meeting will be the last one before the summer recess. If a positive decision is reached, an intergovernmental conference on opening new clusters could be held as early as September.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticized statements by representatives of the Law and Justice (PiS) party regarding a possible blocking of Ukraine’s European integration. He called such calls “idiotic” and contrary to Poland’s interests.
Ukraine has officially opened the sixth cluster of negotiations on accession to the European Union. This is the “External Relations” cluster, which is the last of the six negotiation clusters on the path to EU membership.
