Ukraine and Moldova to begin EU accession process

The European Union will open the first part of the process for Ukraine and Moldova to join the bloc, following Hungary's lifting of its veto on the accession of Ukraine.

The process will formally open this evening through an intergovernmental conference, following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

The Irish Government has warmly welcomed the development, since EU enlargement will be a central priority of Ireland’s upcoming EU presidency.

Accession to the European Union requires candidate countries to negotiate some 33 so-called chapters in order to align national laws, where relevant, with the EU’s body of law.

Those chapters are organised into six thematic clusters.

Ukraine and Moldova will open negotiations on the first cluster of chapters - the so-called fundamentals.

These include: economic criteria, the functioning of democratic institutions, and public administration reform.

Accession requires unanimous approval from each member state along the way.

All this indicates the opening of negotiations is largely symbolic.

It could take many years for Ukraine’s accession to conclude.

Moldova, with its vastly smaller population and public administration, is expected to join more quickly.

However, Ukraine has impressed the EU with the reforms it has put in place, despite fighting a war against Russia, which is now in its fifth year.

Kyiv regards a European future as a goal that its population is literally dying for.

Viktor Orbán, the pro-Russian former Hungarian prime minister, had consistently vetoed the opening of negotiations.

However, his successor, Péter Magyar, has lifted that veto.