EU begins preparations to open five accession negotiation clusters for Ukraine, including agriculture
The Council of the European Union has begun preparations to open accession negotiations with Ukraine under five additional negotiation clusters. The decision was approved on June 17 by the Council’s Working Party on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU (COELA), according to EPravda, citing sources within European institutions.
According to the publication, experts from EU member states have started reviewing the screening results for Clusters 2–6 for both Ukraine and Moldova. This marks the beginning of the official technical preparations for opening these negotiation chapters.
The next step will be the examination of the screening results by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), after which member states will need to approve common positions for each cluster.
According to European Pravda, EU countries have informally agreed on July 14 as the target date for opening the five new clusters in Ukraine’s accession negotiations.
One of them is Cluster 5, “Resources, Agriculture and Cohesion,” which is considered among the most challenging for Ukraine due to the scale of reforms required in the agricultural sector.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy stated that, within the agricultural chapter, the country must fulfill 16 benchmarks across three areas: “Agriculture and Rural Development,” “Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy,” and “Fisheries.”
Key tasks include aligning plant protection product regulations with the requirements of the European Green Deal, establishing the infrastructure needed to implement the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and adapting Ukraine’s agricultural support system to EU rules.
However, European Pravda notes that Ukraine’s plan to open all negotiation clusters by July 2026 may face delays due to the limited time available for the necessary negotiations and approvals.
