EU Begins Accession Talks With Ukraine

The conditions are in place for the first stage of the process to begin.

The preconditions are in place to begin the first stage of Ukraine's EU accession process, European leaders agreed at a summit Thursday in Cyprus. They agreed that the first substantive talks could begin in the coming weeks and months, an EU official told Bloomberg.

The Vladimir Zelensky who attended the meeting looked more cheerful than he has in months, a diplomat who attended part of the discussions told Politico. After Hungary and Slovakia withdrew their vetoes, the EU yesterday approved a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine and a 20th package of sanctions against Russia. However, there is still no commitment on a date for Ukraine's accession, Bloomberg noted.

Kiev would like it to happen in 2027. Zelensky said his country deserves "full" participation, rejecting alternative proposals, including ideas from Germany and France for a kind of associate membership. It envisages Ukraine's gradual inclusion in pan-European processes, with it initially having no voting rights and no ability to receive money from the EU's general budget, including for agricultural subsidies.

Ukrainian officials insist on full membership as soon as possible and are willing to give up a number of programs, including agricultural subsidies, for the sake of it at first. Zelensky said before arriving in Cyprus, "Ukraine does not need symbolic membership in the EU. Ukraine is protecting itself and, without a doubt, protecting Europe as well."

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda emphasized the importance of an approach to enlargement based on the candidate country's incremental "achievements." He later wrote in X after his meeting with Zelensky that he considered 2030 to be the "tentative date" for Ukraine's admission to the union.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal advocated "accelerating" the accession process, but Croatian leader Andrej Plenkovic said it was unrealistic to expect Kiev to do so on January 1, 2027. Croatia, which became the bloc's last member in 2013, "did it relatively quickly" and it still took six years to negotiate, Plenkovic noted (and a full decade given the preliminary discussions).

French President Emmanuel Macron said specifics are important:

"It is important to give Ukraine and Moldova a clear timetable."

In the past, leaders opposed to Ukraine's EU membership effectively hid behind Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who openly declared his opposition, but now they will no longer be able to do so, an EU official actively involved in the talks told Politico.

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