Negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership begin

EU leaders have now decided to open negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the bloc, says European Council president Charles Michel.

“The European Council has decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine & Moldova. #EUCO granted candidate status to Georgia. And the EU will open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached and has invited the commission to report by March with a view to taking such a decision“, he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The European Council has decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine & Moldova. #EUCO granted candidate status to Georgia. And the EU will open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached and…

— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) December 14, 2023

The announcement is seen as a major triumph for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, who has long expressed a desire to be welcomed into the EU.

However, not all EU leaders are so positive about the idea – including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who says it is “absurd, ridiculous and frivolous” to start membership negotiations with Ukraine at this stage, Finnish state broadcaster Yle reports.

In addition to Ukraine and Moldova, the EU website lists Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey as candidate countries that are currently “transposing EU law into their national legislation”.

Georgia and Kosovo are classified on the website as “potential candidates” but are not yet considered to have “fulfilled the conditions for EU membership”.