Ukraine has a gentleman's agreement with the vast majority of EU countries that accession negotiations will begin in June this year. This was stated by the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna during the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum, UNN correspondent reports.
"We did not see any obstacles to approving the negotiation framework in March, which would give us legal grounds to move forward more quickly. But the European elections are about to start, and we have a gentleman's agreement among the vast majority of EU countries that both the intergovernmental conference and the negotiation framework itself will be approved in June," Stefanishyna said.
According to her, there was a meeting of the European Council on Thursday and appropriate instructions were given to the ministers for European affairs in order to start negotiations in June
"By this stage, we have already started the official screening of the legislation...From June, we will start the process of planning the adaptation of the legislation as part of the next stages," Stefanishyna said.
Addendum
Shmyhal saidthat EU accession talks could start in the first half of 2024.
Shmyhal also reported that negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU will take place simultaneously with sectoral integration. The key for Kyiv now is to extend economic visa-free travel.