Hungary has asked for additional time to work through its position on opening Ukraine’s final two EU negotiation clusters.
Taras Kachka, head of Ukraine’s Mission to the EU, told Radio Liberty this was the case.
The clusters concern the environment and energy, and agriculture.
“We hope that in the coming days it will be comfortable for them to give the green light. Indeed, it is the only country saying it needs a few more days… I hope that, in principle, as agreed, this will all be implemented,” he stressed.
Asked to clarify whether approval to open the final two clusters really is a matter of a few days, the ambassador confirmed it concerns the nearest dates.
“It’s early November now, so flexibly — in the coming days,” Kachka noted.
Commenting on Ukraine’s ambition to complete negotiations by the end of 2028, Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU said the plan remains realistic — despite delays to reforms in the area of the rule of law.
“We have the potential to do everything within a single year. And that is not only our experience… There are many examples showing that, with full and rapid mobilisation, it is a matter of a year to a year and a half. And these are not excessive expectations; it is an absolutely realistic story,” the head of Ukraine’s Mission to the EU stressed, citing the examples of Lithuania and Slovakia.
Both countries, whose experience Kachka refers to, began EU accession talks in February 2000 and completed them in December 2002 — in less than three years. Both managed to catch up with states that started negotiations almost two years earlier and, together with them, joined the EU in May 2004.
- Earlier, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said Ukraine could close at least seven of the 35 chapters in its EU accession negotiations as early as 2027 if it meets interim rule-of-law benchmarks.
- She also noted that the European Commission is proposing introducing a new model of gradual integration for candidate countries on the path to EU membership, intended to complement and strengthen the current accession process.
- This year, Ukraine opened four negotiation clusters with the EU. According to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi, the rest are expected to be opened by the end of the year.