Ukraine's accession to EU: OP talks about changing model of negotiations

Deputy Head of the Office of the President (OP) Ihor Zhovkva said this on the air of the United News telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"The agreement on Ukraine's accession to the European Union contains 35 chapters, and a delegation will be set up for each of them. Ukraine will work on joining the European Union on the basis of a new model, when only one chapter will not be opened, and until it is closed, the second will not be opened, but a cluster approach will be applied, which almost no one has tried before. According to this approach, negotiations on several chapters, the so-called clusters, can be opened simultaneously. And we hope that the first cluster will be opened soon," Zhovkva said.

He reminded that the adoption by the EU Council on 21 June of a negotiating framework for the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union is the last bureaucratic step by Brussels to enable the start of actual negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.

"The next step is on 25 June, when an intergovernmental conference will be held, when the negotiations will actually begin," explained the deputy head of the OP.

According to him, an official negotiating delegation from Ukraine will attend the conference, as well as a negotiating delegation from the European Union. "This is a mandatory attribute of the start of negotiations. The EU's negotiating framework will be announced, and the EU's opening statement will be read out. The Ukrainian delegation will also make a statement. This will be the start of the accession negotiations. And then - the negotiations themselves," Zhovkva said.

He also predicted that negotiations on some chapters could be quite intense. "We see how some EU member states react to certain economic activities of Ukraine. But it is important to note that from now on, Ukraine's path to the European Union is irreversible," Zhovkva stressed.

As Ukrinform reported, on 21 June, the EU Council officially approved the mandate for negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on EU accession, which was previously approved at the ambassadorial level, paving the way for the first intergovernmental conference to be held next Tuesday, 25 June.