Zelenskyy on negotiations with EU: Even complicated partners become easier

, 17 May 2024, 13:56

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Ukraine has every chance to start membership negotiations with the EU in early summer because it has done a lot of work and is making progress in bringing its positions closer to "complicated partners".

"Instrumentally and operationally, we have done everything to ensure that the EU opens negotiations with Ukraine in June. I think everything will work out. Even with complicated partners, things have become a little easier today. We have been actively working with them," Zelenskyy said.

The president stressed that from the point of view of procedures, Ukraine has done everything necessary to start the negotiation process, and "only politics remains."

EU ambassador to Kyiv Katarína Mathernová believes that Ukraine is ready to start negotiations about joining the European Union. The head of the EU mission hopes for their actual start at the end of June.

During her last visit to Kyiv, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola also said that she predicted the start of negotiations by the end of the first half of 2024.

This timing is due to the fact that, from 1 July, the EU Council presidency will be transferred from Belgium to Hungary.