EU leaders agree to open first talks with Ukraine within weeks or months – Bloomberg
First talks on Ukraine’s European Union accession could begin within weeks or months after leaders agreed at a Cyprus summit, Bloomberg reported, citing an unnamed EU official.
Even so, firm dates for Ukraine’s entry into the EU remain unclear. The outlet notes that many EU members are wary of Ukraine’s accession because of its potential impact on the bloc’s budget as well as on the agriculture and transport sectors.
Earlier, media reported on an EU idea under which new countries could join the EU without full voting rights. Full rights, including a veto, would be granted only after the EU reforms its mechanisms to make it harder for individual countries to block joint decisions.
The latest version of the proposal has been informally called “reverse enlargement,” because it would effectively bring countries into the EU at the start of meeting membership criteria rather than at the end. However, Politico wrote that most European Union member states did not support an accelerated “in advance” accession for Ukraine that would allow it to join the bloc by 2027.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also rejected this idea, saying, “We do not need ‘EU-lite.’ Or ‘NATO-lite,’ to be honest.”