EU Begins Membership Talks with Moldova and Ukraine

The European Union is set to formally launch accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova after receiving approval from its member states last week.

A ceremony in Luxembourg on Tuesday, June 25, will mark the beginning of these negotiations. Although ratification will take years, the talks will encourage Ukraine to continue moving away from Soviet-era practices.

The agreement among the bloc’s 27 members was reached despite efforts by Hungary to block the move. The EU will start by screening Ukraine and Moldova’s legislation to identify necessary reforms to meet the bloc’s standards.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict traces back to the Maidan uprising of 2014, when protesters ousted President Viktor Yanukovych for abandoning plans to forge closer ties with the EU. Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after the Russian invasion in February 2022, with Moldova following suit soon after.