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Ukraine and Moldova open the first phase of negotiations on joining the European Union in Luxembourg on Monday, ending a two-year political deadlock driven by the former Hungarian government’s opposition to opening talks with Kyiv.
“It is a historic milestone for my country,” Moldova’s deputy Prime Minister, Cristina Gherasimov, told Euronews on Monday. “This is also a strong signal for us that the EU is also getting ready to receive new member states.”
Describing the talks as the “biggest step” in Ukraine and Moldova’s accession bid since they were granted candidate status in 2023, the EU’s enlargement chief Marta Kos told reporters on Monday she was “positive” both countries could sustain the momentum and open the remaining five phases – known as “clusters” – of talks next month.
Both countries submitted their EU membership applications following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and EU leaders unanimously agreed in June 2024 to open accession negotiations with both Kyiv and Chisinau.
But Hungary’s former premier Viktor Orbán then scuppered progress by vetoing talks with Ukraine citing concerns over the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region. Kyiv and Chisinau have been “coupled” in their accession bids, meaning Hungary’s veto on Ukraine also indirectly held back Moldova’s progress.
The new government led by Péter Magyar has since struck a deal with Kyiv on guaranteeing the freedoms of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, which paved the way for the first phase of talks to start on Monday.
Yet, Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán cautioned on Monday that the “fulfilment and implementation'” of an agreement struck recently between Kyiv and Budapest “is a fundamental condition in the European integration process of Ukraine”.
It’s a stark reminder that the road ahead to EU membership could be riddled with obstacles.
The push to open the remaining five thematic “clusters” of negotiations before summer could also be a politically delicate issue. It would involve preparing to integrate Ukraine and Moldova into the EU’s landmark agricultural funding programme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a prospect countries such as Poland and France could resist.
The ‘most important foreign policy’ tool
The two-year limbo for Ukraine had prompted the European Commission and Kyiv to press on with the technical work of implementing the necessary reforms despite Hungary’s veto, in a process called ‘front-loading’.
It’s part of efforts to accelerate Ukraine’s accession, which President Zelenskyy has framed as an essential security guarantee for post-war Ukraine.
A statement by the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU, which has steered preparations for the talks, framed accession as a “security guarantee and an expansion of European space of security, stability and prosperity”, adding that enlargement is a “geopolitical necessity” in times of “upheaval”.
On Monday, Commissioner Kos described the enlargement process as “the most important foreign policy of the European Union”, adding that more progress has been made in reviving the policy in the last past 16 months than in the previous 15 years.
Kos has also been promoting efforts to tweak the accession process in order to accommodate Ukraine more quickly, such as through a form of membership-lite which would see Ukraine join the bloc without full voting rights.
Some of the proposals that have emerged, such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s vision for so-called “associate membership”, have nonetheless been quickly dismissed by European diplomats as well as by President Zelenskyy himself.
Kos told reporters on Monday that there can be “no half membership of quarter membership”, but that there are “many options with what we can do in the field of gradual integration”, which could see countries join the bloc in phases and unlock access to key voting rights and funding programmes gradually.