Ukraine is making every effort to ensure that the decision to open all clusters of EU accession negotiations is agreed upon at the bloc's summit on December 19, and is currently looking for ways to change Hungary's position. There was a conversation with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó yesterday, and Kyiv expects a result, Taras Kachka, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, said on Wednesday on Facebook, writes UNN.
... we need to conduct our own negotiations. We need to formally open all clusters. We are all looking for ways to do this. We have the support of 26 member states. We are also looking for ways to change Hungary's position. I spoke with Péter Szijjártó yesterday and we will maintain a dialogue. I hope we will get a result.
Meanwhile, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, "we are not stopping work on preparing all clusters for opening." "The Commission noted that clusters 1, 2, and 6 are ready for opening. Ukraine's negotiating position for cluster 3 has been approved, and the Commission has submitted the draft EU negotiating position to the Council. The preparation of negotiating positions for clusters 4 and 5 is being completed. I agree with Marta Kos that all six clusters will be ready for opening by the end of November," Kachka said.
Therefore, the 27 member states must then approve the decision. All efforts are aimed at making this happen on December 19 during the meeting of the European Council.
"Whatever happens, we will fulfill all tasks within the negotiation process as quickly as possible," he noted.
At the same time, Kachka is convinced that "completing EU accession negotiations in 2028 is a realistic goal." "This is the main conclusion from the presentation of the Enlargement Report. The level of preparation and the pace of reforms allow us to do this – this is the assessment of the European Commission. Our joint efforts are yielding results. But we also have an enormous amount of work ahead of us," he pointed out.
"So what's next? The report contains recommendations in each area of negotiations. But this is only a small visible part of the negotiation process. This year we completed screenings. As a result, we have hundreds of pages of reports, negotiating positions, and roadmaps with even more measures. By the end of the year, all these documents will be consolidated into the National Program of Adoption of Acquis and, in fact, a weekly plan for monitoring our implementation of all measures by the European Commission," the official pointed out.
According to him, "the lion's share of this work is legislative acts of the Verkhovna Rada and the government and the development of institutions (especially in terms of the rule of law)."
"Given the coordinated work of the Verkhovna Rada and the government, everything can be done by the end of 2027," Kachka emphasized.