Ukraine is making efforts to open negotiating clusters with the EU on December 19 – Kachka

All efforts are being made to open negotiating clusters with the European Union on December 19 during the European Council meeting. This was reported to by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka.

He believes that completing EU accession negotiations in 2028 is a realistic goal.

"This is the main conclusion from the presentation of the Enlargement Report. The level of preparation and the pace of reforms allow us to do this – this is the assessment of the European Commission. Our joint efforts are yielding results," Kachka emphasized, adding that Ukraine has a lot of work ahead of it.

According to the official, the report contains recommendations in each area of the negotiations. But this is only a small visible part of the negotiation process. He reminded that this year Ukraine completed the screenings.

"As a result, we have hundreds of pages of reports, negotiating positions and roadmaps with even more activities," explained Kachka.

According to him, by the end of the year, all these documents will be consolidated into the National Program for the Adaptation of Legislation to EU Law and, in fact, a weekly plan for monitoring the implementation of all EU measures.

Kachka emphasized that the lion's share of this work is legislative acts of the Verkhovna Rada and the government and the development of institutions (especially in terms of the rule of law).

With the coordinated work of the parliament and the government, everything can be done by the end of 2027, he said.

The official added that negotiations should be held in parallel. It is necessary to formally open all clusters and find ways to do this. Ukraine has the support of 26 EU members, with the exception of Hungary.

"We are looking for ways to change Hungary's position as well <…> I hope we will get results," he said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to work on preparing all clusters for opening. The Commission noted that the first, second, and sixth clusters are ready for opening. Ukraine's negotiating position on the third cluster has been approved, and the Commission has submitted the draft EU negotiating position to the Council. Negotiating positions on clusters four and five are being finalized. All six clusters should be ready by the end of November.

"This means that the next step is for the 27 member states to approve the decision. All efforts are being made to ensure that this happens on December 19 during a meeting of the European Council," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

• On March 14, 2025, Zelenskyy announced that the decision on Ukraine's membership in the EU is being blocked by only one country, Hungary. To resolve foreign policy and security issues, the support of all members of the block is needed.
• On June 26, Orban announced the results of the Voks2025 propaganda national poll on Ukraine's accession to the EU. He said that the vast majority of Hungarians voted against.
• In October, Kaczka said that Ukraine expects a breakthrough in advancing its EU membership application by the end of this year.