The Ukrainian side has spent a lot of time to build a bilateral dialogue with the European Union, so it will do everything to open clusters for negotiations on joining the EU by January 1.
This was stated by the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olga Stefanishyna in an interview with the host of the information telethon Edinye Novosti Vadym Karpyak.
Stefanishina on the start of negotiations on joining the EU
The journalist asked Stefanishyna when negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union could begin if it were indeed possible to ignore Hungary's position.
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“I would not say that it is a question of ignoring Hungary's position. Personally, I, the entire government team and the President's Office team, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, we spent a lot of time to build a bilateral dialogue,” she said.
According to Stefanishina, in fact, Hungary’s very behavior contributed to internal transformations in the EU.
In her opinion, the question is not when accession negotiations will be opened for Ukraine and Moldova, but when the European Union itself will be ready for this.
— We have fulfilled all the conditions for opening half of all our negotiating areas, starting with the basics. As it is called, the basics of membership in the European Union. And we are ready to open all three clusters in July or start with the first cluster together with Moldova, — she claims.
As Stefanishyna noted, this is confirmed in the decision of the European Council that Ukraine has fulfilled everything necessary to open the first cluster.
According to her, all negotiating areas should be open by the end of this year. This is already a political issue, since these are negotiations, obligations, the work of the parliament, which must be planned, as well as the work of the government, Stefanishyna explained.
She said that today almost 4 thousand people are involved in negotiation teams in all areas, so this condition is not going away.
“We are only talking about the date when the first fundamental block of negotiations will be opened. This is the main political decision, then it will be more technical. We agreed with the Danish presidency that this will be ensured as soon as the first negotiations are opened,” Stefanishyna noted.
She answered a clarifying question about whether there is a theoretical chance to implement this before January 1, 2026.
“We must do this at any cost. We will open these clusters by January 1, for sure,” Stefanishina summed up.
