Brussels officials insist on starting official negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union as early as June, POLITICO reported adding that, intensive work is allegedly underway to persuade the Hungarian government to agree on such a decision. On the request of Budapest, Ukraine is negotiating with Hungary to resolve the problematic issues of Hungarian national minority in Ukraine.
After EU leaders provided political support to Kyiv, the next step in the accession process is the start of official negotiations in the framework of an intergovernmental conference with Ukraine. For this to happen, EU member states must agree on a negotiation framework. Ukraine and its supporters in the EU are calling for an intergovernmental conference between Brussels and Kyiv to be held before Hungary takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council on 1 July. Belgian officials have already scheduled an intergovernmental conference for 25 June.
However, despite the fact that even the date was scheduled, it seems that the formal EU accession talks with Ukraine will almost certainly not take place on 25 June, but, will start during the first EU Summit after the European elections, on 27-28 June in Brussels.
The two main questions to ask these days, when, on the one hand, the European Union is busy with the European Parliament elections and facing its usual major reshuffle, and on the other hand, in Ukraine, in the neighbourhood of Kharkiv in particular, Russia launched a new offensive, are as follows:
1) Will those EU member states and top EU politicians who are calling for Ukraine to be granted EU membership as soon as possible be able to cope with the mountain of problems that will result from the accession of Ukraine?
2) Will this generous gesture (i.e. granting the EU membership) save Kharkiv and Ukraine from the aggression of Russia?
I am afraid the answer to both questions is no.
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