EU moves to open accession talks

What's happened

EU ambassadors have launched the formal process to open the first negotiating cluster with Ukraine and Moldova, and the Cyprus presidency has prepared intergovernmental conferences for June 15. Hungary has signalled a breakthrough on minority rights with Kyiv, and German proposals for an "associate member" status for Ukraine are shaping rival views of how fast accession can proceed.

What's behind the headline?

What just happened

EU ambassadors in Brussels have triggered the formal step that will allow the bloc to open the first negotiating cluster with Ukraine and Moldova. That cluster focuses on rule-of-law and democratic standards and requires unanimous approval by all 27 member states before talks can proceed.

Who is driving this

• The Cyprus EU presidency is preparing intergovernmental conferences on June 15 in Luxembourg to move accession talks forward.
• Germany is pushing alternative routes, proposing an "associate member" status that would let Ukraine attend EU meetings without voting rights — a plan Kyiv has rejected.
• Hungary has shifted: its new government and talks with Kyiv on the rights of Hungary's minority in Ukraine have removed a key veto risk that stalled negotiations under the previous Hungarian administration.

Immediate consequences

• The Council's common position is now likely to be finalised, which will allow separate intergovernmental conferences with Kyiv and Chisinau to proceed on June 15.
• Opening the cluster will create a structured process to test Kyiv's and Chisinau's reforms, accelerating technical scrutiny of laws and institutions.

What this will cause next

• Brussels will require unanimity at each procedural step; remaining holdouts will gain leverage and could extract concessions on procedural safeguards or bilateral issues.
• If the June 15 conferences take place, the accession process will enter a sustained, high-stakes phase that will keep EU capitals negotiating technical benchmarks and political guarantees through 2027 and beyond.

Risk and verdict

• Political risk is concentrated in bilateral disputes (notably Hungary–Ukraine) and in debates over interim models like "associate membership." Those disputes will shape whether accession proceeds as a straightforward chapter-by-chapter process or as a bespoke political arrangement that changes how the EU integrates a country at war.

Bottom line

Opening the cluster will move accession from political statements to procedural tests. That will increase pressure on member states to either resolve bilateral stand-offs quickly or to negotiate new, formalised intermediate statuses that rework membership mechanics.

How we got here

Ukraine and Moldova have pursued EU membership since 2022 and 2024 respectively. Candidate status required extensive reforms and unanimity by all 27 members to open negotiating chapters; Hungary has previously blocked progress but a new Budapest government has begun talks with Kyiv on minority rights.

Our analysis

Politico's Zoya Sheftalovich reports that ambassadors meeting in Brussels have launched the process to open the first negotiating cluster with both countries and that the Cyprus presidency called the move a "significant milestone" in European integration. Reuters noted on June 3 that Cyprus had begun preparing to formally open negotiations and that Hungary and Ukraine had reached an agreement on minority rights — Reuters quoted the Cypriot presidency saying the step "sends a strong message of EU unity and determination." Politico's Nette Nöstlinger recorded Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar saying he was "ready to negotiate with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy early next week," underlining Budapest's new willingness to discuss the long-running minority-rights dispute that had blocked Kyiv's talks under the previous Hungarian government. Multiple outlets including Reuters and AP have documented German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's proposal for an "associate member" status that would allow Ukraine to participate in EU meetings without a vote; Reuters and AP record Kyiv's rejection of that idea — Zelenskyy has argued such a status would leave Ukraine "voiceless," according to Al Jazeera's reporting. Politico's Nicholas Vinocur and Reuters pieces outline the procedural reality: accession requires unanimous approval by all 27 members to open and close negotiating clusters and will therefore remain vulnerable to bilateral disputes even as technical talks are prepared this month.

Go deeper

• What specific rule-of-law chapters will the first cluster cover and how long will each chapter take to open or close?
• Which EU member states remain undecided and what concessions might they seek in return for backing the cluster?
• How will Germany's "associate member" proposal affect negotiations if some capitals prefer a bespoke political pathway?

More on these topics

• European Union

  The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. Its members have a combined area of 4,233,255.3 km² and an estimated total population of about 447 million.

• Ukraine - Country in Europe

  Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy - President of Ukraine

  Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician, actor and comedian who is the 6th and current president of Ukraine, serving since May 2019.

• Friedrich Merz - German lawyer

  Friedrich Merz is a German lawyer and politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, he served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994 and was elected to the Bundestag from 1994 until 2009, where he chaired the CDU/CSU parliament

• Vladimir Putin - Russian President

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• Ursula von der Leyen - President of the European Commission

  Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a German politician and the president of the European Commission since 1 December 2019. She served in the federal government of Germany from 2005 to 2019 as the longest-serving member of Angela Merkel's cabinet.

• Hungary - Country in Europe

  Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres in the Carpathian Basin, it borders Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, a

• Germany - Country in Europe

  Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe. Covering an area of 357,022 square kilometres, it lies between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south.

• Budapest - Capital of Hungary

  Budapest is the capital and the most populous city of Hungary, and the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits. The city has an estimated population of 1,752,286 over a land area of about 525 square kilometres.

• Moldova - Country in Europe

  Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The capital city is Chișinău.