EU Council Working Group Prepared Draft Common Position on Cluster 1 for Ukraine and Moldova on June 4

The European Union Council's Working Group on Enlargement held an extraordinary meeting on June 4 in Brussels. The purpose of the meeting was to prepare draft common positions of the EU regarding Cluster 1 «Fundamentals» for Ukraine and Moldova. These documents are expected to be ready for approval by EU ambassadors on June 5 or next week.

According to «European Pravda», citing an informed EU official, the working group's agenda included only two documents: draft common positions of the European Union (EU Common Position) on Cluster 1 «Fundamentals» for Ukraine and Moldova. After preparation, these documents must be reviewed and unanimously adopted (27 votes out of 27) at a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).

The «Fundamentals» cluster can only be opened after the common position has been approved by the EU Council. The EU's common position includes a list of interim benchmarks that a country must achieve to proceed to the closing of the cluster.

These developments occur against the backdrop of Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar's statement on June 3 about reaching a «comprehensive agreement» with Ukraine regarding the Hungarian national minority. Earlier, Magyar had stated that he would unblock the opening of negotiation clusters for Ukraine only if Kyiv guaranteed the fulfillment of Hungary's 11 demands concerning national minorities. According to «European Pravda», the opening of the first cluster «Fundamentals» in the accession negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova is scheduled for June 15.