The European Commission believes that Ukraine has done enough in the field of protecting the rights of national minorities, so a way must be found to convince Hungary to allow the opening of the first cluster in the EU accession negotiations.
This was stated by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, who spoke in an interview with Radio Liberty, Ukrinform reports.
“Ukraine has done enough – I can say this from my personal experience, since I facilitated the dialogue between Hungary and Ukraine. There were plenty of issues, and Ukraine is ready to fulfill all the requirements. But this is not enough for Hungary. Now we need to find a way to convince Hungary to allow the opening of the first (negotiation) cluster,” Kos said, according to the text published in Ukrainian.
As per the commissioner, Ukrainians understand perfectly well that it is not only about protecting the Hungarian minority. In this context, the European Commissioner mentioned the “public poll in Hungary”.
At the same time, she stressed that EU member states should act according to the old rules of enlargement in view of the new geopolitical situation.
“That’s because we are somehow caught up in the tension between geopolitical and security needs on the one hand, and on the other hand, a methodology that has not changed much in 30 years,” Kos noted.
The European Commissioner stressed that a dialogue should be conducted with Hungary, recalling that Budapest had not previously objected to Ukraine being granted candidate status.
According to Kos, it is possible to open all six clusters for Moldova and Ukraine as early as this year. The decision should be made by the European Council, but from a technical point of view, the European Commission is already working on it.
“I am confident that we will be able to prepare both countries to opening everything this year,” she said.
As reported, during a press conference following the Ukraine-EU Association Council, which took place in Brussels on April 9, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expressed hope that Ukraine would be able to open all six clusters in the membership negotiations with the EU as early as this year.
At the same time, the Minister for European Union Affairs of the Polish presidency of the EU, Adam Szlapka, stated on April 10 during the Ukraine-EU business forum in Brussels that Hungary continues to block the start of negotiations with Ukraine from the first cluster ,”Fundamentals”, and theat the chances of it being opened by June 30, when the term of the Polish presidency of the EU is coming to an end, have significantly decreased.
Photo: Thierry Monasse/STA
Source: Kos on opening first cluster of Ukraine’s EU accession talks: Dialogue with Hungary needed
