Draft EU common position on first negotiating cluster for Ukraine being prepared for approval

The Council of the EU working group on enlargement held an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on 4 June to prepare draft EU common positions on Cluster 1, Fundamentals, for Ukraine and Moldova so they would be ready for approval by EU ambassadors on 5 June or next week.

According to an EU official familiar with the process, the enlargement working group has only two documents on its agenda on Thursday 4 June: draft EU Common Position on negotiating Cluster 1, Fundamentals, for Ukraine and Moldova.

These two documents must then be considered and adopted unanimously, requiring 27 votes out of 27, at a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).

The Fundamentals negotiating cluster can be opened only after the common position has been approved by the Council of the EU.

The EU common position includes, among other things, a list of interim benchmarks that the country must meet in order to move towards closing the cluster.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said his country had reached a "comprehensive agreement" with Ukraine on the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

EU ambassadors began urgent preparations to open the first cluster for Ukraine and Moldova.

European Pravda reported that the opening of this first negotiating cluster (Fundamentals) for Ukraine and Moldova is planned for 15 June.

It was reported earlier that Magyar said he would only unblock the opening of negotiating clusters for Ukraine if Kyiv guaranteed the implementation of Hungary's 11 demands on minorities.