EU prepares to open agricultural negotiation cluster for Ukraine

The EU Council Working Group on Enlargement (COELA), which includes experts from all 27 EU member states, began on Wednesday, June 17, reviewing the results of the screening of all unopened clusters for Ukraine and Moldova (2 to 6), thus launching official preparations for their opening.

Three European diplomats and an EU official familiar with the process told the European Truth correspondent in Brussels on condition of anonymity.

The EU Council Working Group on Enlargement (COELA) began reviewing the results of the screening of clusters 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 for Ukraine and Moldova on the morning of Wednesday, June 17, according to sources familiar with European Truth. One of them is cluster 5 “Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion”, which is considered one of the most difficult for Ukraine due to the scale of the necessary reforms in the agricultural sector.

This marked the start of the official technical preparation of the above-mentioned clusters for their opening and their discussion by diplomats of the EU member states.

The next step will be the assessment of the screening results and their formal approval at a meeting of the EU Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) – the discussion may begin next week.

The COELA and COREPER working groups are also to further discuss and approve the EU Common Position (which includes a list of necessary reforms that need to be implemented) for each cluster, which will mean its readiness for opening.

According to “European Truth”, unofficially, the EU member states have already agreed on a date for the opening of five clusters in the accession negotiations for Ukraine – July 14.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after talking with G7 leaders in France, stated that so far “no one sees” any slowdowns in the process of opening all clusters in the negotiations with the EU.

As is known, on June 15 in Luxembourg, at the second Intergovernmental Conference, the EU officially announced the start of negotiations with Kyiv on the first negotiation cluster, which became the official opening of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

Tags: Ukraine, EU, agricultural sector