“The EU needs to continue developing and accepting new members,” said EU's chief diplomat Kaja Kallas after a meeting with Swedish and Ukrainian officials.
Despite Kyiv receiving legal approval to start talks with Brussels, the first negotiation cluster has not yet been opened. The entire process includes six clusters, divided into 35 chapters in total.
“Technically, we could be ready to open two clusters for Ukraine in the first half of the year,” said EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos during a news conference in Brussels. She noted that further progress depends on the agreement of EU member states, without which Ukraine’s EU integration will be impossible.
Earlier the same day, Kallas expressed hope within the EU to find common ground with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban to prevent blocking talks on Ukraine's integration into the EU.