The ambassadors of the 27 member countries of the European Union reached an “agreement in principle” yesterday Friday for the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, which will begin on June 25, the Belgian presidency of the European Council announced yesterday.

“The ambassadors agreed in principle on the framework for accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The Belgian presidency will convene the first intergovernmental conferences on June 25,” said the source.

The decision is expected to be officially ratified by a cabinet on June 21. In the Netherlands, it will need the green light of parliament.

EU heads of state and government opened the way for accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in mid-December.

But Hungary has so far held back the official start of accession negotiations with Ukraine, arguing that the conditions for this are not met.

The Commission, for its part, decided on June 7 that Ukraine and Moldova fulfilled all the necessary conditions to start official negotiations.

The European Commission had asked Kiev in particular for measures to combat corruption and the dominance of oligarchs in the economy. He also called for measures to treat minorities more favorably, which Budapest insisted on because of the presence of a Hungarian community in Ukraine.

The EU granted Ukraine candidate status in June 2022, a gesture of great symbolic value to Kiev, a few months after the outbreak of war with Russia; at the same time, it granted the same status to neighboring Moldova.

The opening of negotiations is simply the first stage in the long and arduous accession process. The eventual accession to the EU of Ukraine, a country with a population of more than 40 million inhabitants and a large agricultural force, is characterized by a process that raises many difficulties and challenges, starting with the issues of financing.