On Tuesday, the European Commission – as announced hours earlier by the body's president, Ursula von der Leyen – formally proposed the start of accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Commission advertisement According to the EU parastatal, a draft negotiation framework with Ukraine and Moldova has also been finalized, which will be sent to the Council of Ministers.
Member States decide unanimously on the main steps for enlargement, such as nomination for membership, starting negotiations in principle, or adopting the necessary negotiating framework to reach a practical agreement.
In November last year, the European Commission proposed starting accession negotiations with Ukraine, which had previously announced a candidate for membership, and Moldova, which is going through a sensitive situation. The Hungarian government opposed it in the case of Ukraine, and Viktor Orban then allowed it to pass at an EU summit in December in exchange for withdrawal. The government attempted to explain the maneuver in part by saying that in order for negotiations to practically begin, the negotiating framework must be accepted, which it could object to in the same way – in fact, it would have more than seventy such opportunities later. Candidates must take charge of EU legislation, which is divided into 35 chapters and can only be opened or closed by unanimous decision.
The European Commission has previously made seven recommendations to Ukraine. Based on the November assessment, only four of them were fully met, and minority protection, anti-corruption and anti-oligarchy measures were not met. Ursula von der Leyen suggested at the time that although Ukraine had managed to meet “over 90 percent” of the requirements, the recommendations would be reconsidered in March, and member states would only accept the negotiating framework if everything was decided. on. The committee's press release on Tuesday only said that they would report verbally to the council on the progress the two countries had made – it did not say whether everything had been accomplished or where they stood in terms of expectations.
Regarding minority rights, the EU wants to put into effect the recommendations of a non-EU advisory board, and we have written more about this here. The position of the Hungarian government is that Ukraine should restore minority rights from 2015. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in December that all EU expectations had been met with a new law, but according to Tamás Mentzer, State Secretary responsible for bilateral relations in the Ministry Foreign Affairs and Trade, this is a far cry from restoring the rights that existed in 2015.
If member states unanimously accept the framework, the successive presidency of the Council – from July to December this year, it will be Hungary – will present the EU's common position to the identified candidate at an intergovernmental conference, which will only be announced afterwards. . European Union leaders will meet next week.
