The European Union today formally begins negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova that will eventually lead to the two former Soviet republics joining the European bloc as full members.

Russia tried by all means to obstruct the process, which is expected to be long and painful.

“Congratulations to Moldova and Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told X. “The road will be difficult, but full of opportunities.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the announcement last week, speaking of the consolidation of the “European dream”.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu today welcomed the start of negotiations saying the country is within the European family. “We are stronger together,” he wrote to X.

The 27 will officially announce the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine at 15.30 Luxembourg time and immediately after with Moldova during an Intergovernmental Conference.

The start of these talks is the result of an agreement obtained with great difficulty by the 26 EU countries which exhausted their ingenuity to convince the 27th, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, not to block the process.

Hungary’s prime minister has reacted sharply to the start of accession talks with Ukraine under the pretext that the country is not ready. A member of the European Union and an ally of Putin’s Russia, Orban’s Hungary blocks all European military aid to Kiev.

In the end, Orbán agreed to leave the negotiating table at the European summit in December, leaving the 26 time to decide on the start of accession negotiations with Kiev and Chisinau.

“As soon as the work of the Intergovernmental Conference is official, the negotiators will review the legislation of the two countries to confirm that it is in line with European legislation.

This phase, the screening, lasts one to two years, explains a diplomatic source.

But in the cases of Ukraine and Moldova, things will move much faster because “we already have a pretty clear idea” of the situation, a European diplomat said.

However, it will take several weeks, even months, before the individual chapters of the trade are opened. And they are unlikely to open before the end of the year, since Hungary takes over the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, which is unlikely to advance accession negotiations with Kiev and Chisinau within the next six months.

The Union’s heads of state and government gave the green light for the start of accession negotiations in mid-December 2023. However, Budapest has until today put the brakes on the official start of the process with Kiev under the pretext that the conditions are not being met. “If I stick to what I see here now as we speak, the Ukrainians are far from fulfilling the membership criteria,” Hungarian Foreign Minister János Bóka repeated today in Luxembourg.

However, the European Commission decided and announced on June 7 that Ukraine and Moldova have fulfilled all the conditions for membership.

The Commission had asked Kiev to take measures to fight corruption and the rule of the oligarchs. The Commission also asked for measures in favor of minorities, one of the conditions set by Budapest due to the presence of a Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

The European Union granted candidate country status in June 2022 to Ukraine, in a highly symbolic move, just months after the Russian invasion, and to Moldova.