EU Could Begin Ukraine Accession Negotiations in December

The European Union could begin accession negotiations for Ukraine in December as part of efforts to expand the bloc's membership to other countries.

Three diplomats who know the plans said that EU leaders are gearing up to give Kyiv the green light to start formal talks on joining the bloc before the year ends. Currently, Ukraine is at the center of a major new push for the EU to expand to as many as 35 member countries.

Ukraine's Accession to the EU

In a statement during her annual address to Parliament last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Kyiv's future was "in the Union." In June, EU countries granted Ukraine status as a candidate for EU membership. The Commission is also due to issue a "progress report" on how well Kyiv and other aspiring bloc members meet its conditions to join in November.

After the progress report has been adopted, the Commission will make a statement that would make it difficult for member states not to stay "let's open negotiations" for Ukraine. This was revealed by one diplomat who was granted anonymity to discuss such confidential matters, as per Politico.

They added that the political push around that particular issue is seen as too big for individual member states to resist. He noted that the working assumption is that by December, the European Council will decide to open negotiations for Ukraine to join the bloc.

However, any decision to formally start negotiations for Kyiv to join the EU is politically and legally fraught. To begin such discussions, Ukraine is legally required to meet seven conditions the Commission laid out, including judicial reforms and curbing corruption within the region.

Support for Kyiv

As of August, Kyiv has only met two of the seven conditions, said the country's government at the time. While Ukraine may not yet complete all of the conditions by the time European state and government leaders gather for a summit in mid-December, they are set to make a political statement that authorizes negotiations even if the legal negotiating framework is not yet finalized.

The situation comes as EU foreign ministers expressed continued support for Ukraine during a meeting in Kyiv on Monday. It was their first meeting held in a non-member country and comes after a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and after the United States government left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill, according to Reuters.

Kyiv also brushed off concerns that support for its war effort was starting to fade on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in the U.S. In a statement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said they do not feel the American government's support has been shattered because the U.S. understands that what is at stake is bigger than Ukraine.

On the other hand, the EU proposed more than $5 billion in a military aid package for Ukraine after the meeting in Kyiv. The EU's high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, said that the bloc continues to be committed to helping Kyiv defeat a "brutal and inhumane" Russia, said The Guardian.