UKRAINE: EU Commission Says It Supports Starting Accession Talks

The European Commission has informed a meeting of EU member state permanent representatives that it supports starting accession talks with Ukraine, as well as Moldova, as soon as this month. Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal says that the Commission's report recommending talks begin says that Ukraine has fulfiled the additional four legislative steps laid out in the 2022 Commission opinion on Ukraine's membership (see p.20). 

• The FT reports that the Commission told ambassadors that "that Ukraine now met previously outstanding criteria including anti-corruption measures, restrictions on political lobbying, rules on asset declarations for public officials and protection of languages used by national minorities."
• There is believed to be notable pressue within the Commission to get talks underway as soon as possible to ensure they start ahead of 1 July, when Hungary accepts the chair of the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for H224. While the Orban gov't would not be able to stop talks starting or taking place during its presidency, its role does include agenda-setting at Council meetings and as such could look to keep Ukraine accession-related discussions off the table. 
• The difficulty for the Commission is that unanimity is required to start talks, and as such Hungary could hold this up. Budapest has raised concerns about Ukraine's treatment of non-Ukrainian speakers, although the EU has said these concerns go beyond the criteria on protecting languages it has laid out for talks to begin.