The European Union has officially opened the sixth negotiation cluster (“External Relations”) on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova to the EU. This was reported by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos on the social network X, writes “Detector Media“. The PromPolitInform portal informs.
“Together with Ukraine and Moldova, we are opening cluster 6, which covers areas such as defense and security, where the arguments in favor of their membership in the EU are particularly strong,” said the European Commissioner.
Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka called the opening of the sixth negotiation cluster a confirmation of Ukraine’s overall progress on the path to the EU.
“This cluster reflects what is already a reality: Ukraine and the EU work side by side every day in the fields of foreign policy, security and defense, trade, humanitarian aid, and development cooperation. Ukraine is ready and expects to open the remaining clusters soon,” Kachka wrote in the ix.
It should be noted that the process of joining the European Union involves adapting the legislation and institutional capacity of the candidate country to EU standards, which forms the basis of the stage called “accession negotiations”.
To effectively manage this process, the negotiations are structured into 35 chapters covering different areas. And in order to simplify and optimize the negotiation process, these chapters are combined into six thematic clusters.
Among them are “Fundamentals”, “Internal Market”, “Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth”, “Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity”, “Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion” and “External Relations”.
The opening of the first cluster on Ukraine’s accession to the EU was agreed by all 27 member states of the bloc on June 15. At the same time, European Commissioner Marta Cos said that the European Union hopes to open the remaining clusters in July.
As a reminder, Ukraine applied for EU membership on February 28, 2022. On June 23, 2022, the European Council granted Ukraine the status of candidate for accession to the European Union. On December 14, 2023, the European Council decided to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. On June 25, 2024, the start of negotiations was officially announced.
