The ambassadors of the 27 EU states have agreed in principle to start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova at the end of June. The Belgian EU Council Presidency announced this on Friday evening.
“The Belgian Presidency will convene the first intergovernmental conferences on 25 June,” it said. This decision still has to be formally confirmed at a ministerial meeting on 21 June.
In December, the EU cleared the way for accession talks for the country attacked by Russia and its neighbour Moldova at a summit in Brussels. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban sharply criticised this but refrained from vetoing it. Before the vote on the accession negotiations, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) suggested that Orban leave the room to save face. “Then we made the decision, 26 of us in the room,” Scholz said at the time.
