Negotiation framework for Ukraine's accession to EU will not be ready until summer

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has said that the framework for negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU will not be ready before the European elections scheduled for early June.

"We are making excellent progress on the screening process. This is very good. And we are working on a negotiating framework. My best guess is that they will not be ready before the European elections, but after them, because I see different negotiating positions developing. It will take time," von der Leyen said at a briefing in Brussels on Wednesday.

"But I think that sometime in the summer, early summer, we will be ready," she added.

The European Commission started working on a draft negotiation framework for Ukraine, a document that defines the principles and procedures for negotiating EU accession, in January.

Earlier, there were hopes that the negotiating framework would be ready sooner and that it would be approved at an intergovernmental conference convened after the March summit of EU leaders. The convening of the intergovernmental conference is the de facto start of accession negotiations.

The EU summit in March is expected to assess the latest steps Ukraine has taken to launch accession negotiations. Among them is the approval of the law on lobbying.