EU summit calls for acceleration of Ukraine accession talks, source says

A number of EU leaders called for an acceleration of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU at a European Council meeting on 20 March.

Source: European Pravda, citing a senior EU official on condition of anonymity

Details: The source stated that at the meeting in Brussels, "many EU heads of state" emphasised the need to expedite Ukraine's EU accession talks and promptly open the first negotiating chapter.

The discussion regarding Ukraine at the EU summit lasted two hours: first, EU leaders discussed the situation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then continued to talk among themselves, the source added.

Background:

• This year, the European Commission announced ambitious plans to open three clusters of negotiations between Ukraine and the EU before the end of the Polish presidency in June 2025.
• However, in mid-February, it became known that Hungary had blocked the opening of the first negotiation cluster and demanded that the list of requirements for Ukraine be expanded.
• Earlier this month, Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orbán announced a non-binding nationwide poll on support for Ukraine’s EU accession. In a list of 12 demands to Brussels released last week, he noted that the EU should be "a Union but without Ukraine".

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