EU to seek progress on opening negotiating clusters 4 and 5 for Ukraine on 20 October

The Working Party on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU (COELA) will discuss the screening results for negotiating clusters 4 and 5 in Brussels on 20 October. This could be the next step towards opening the clusters as part of Ukraine's EU accession negotiations.

Source: European Pravda's correspondent in Brussels, citing several EU diplomats

Details: The COELA meeting is scheduled to begin at 11:30 Kyiv time on 20 October.

Ukraine will be the first item on the agenda, with the meeting set to examine the screening of Ukrainian legislation under Cluster 4: Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity, and Cluster 5: Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion Policy.

A similar discussion of the screening results for these two clusters is also planned for Moldova.

Ukraine has so far opened four of the six negotiating clusters, and clusters 4 and 5 as the last two are still awaiting opening.

The Ukrainian government expects the two clusters to be opened by the end of 2026 and believes Hungary will no longer block the process.

Vsevolod Chentsov, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, told European Pravda in an interview that Ukraine has now managed to "turn the page" on relations with Hungary, which had previously created obstacles to Ukraine's EU accession.

Background: On 13 October, the Council of the EU officially opened two more negotiating clusters for Ukraine's accession talks. To make this possible, the Ukrainian parliament approved amendments to the law on education to lift Hungary's veto.

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