E.U. Leaders Agree to Open Membership Negotiations With Ukraine
After a bruising trip to Washington, Ukraine welcomed an important breakthrough in securing support from its allies as the war drags on.
Charles Michel, wearing a dark suit, spoke with an orange microphone in front of him while surrounded by reporters.
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, in Brussels on Thursday.Credit...Virginia Mayo/Associated Press
Matina Stevis-Gridneff
By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
Reporting from Brussels
Dec. 14, 2023
Updated 1:42 p.m. ET
European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to officially open accession negotiations for Ukraine to join the bloc, an important breakthrough for Kyiv as it tries to bolster support from its allies.
The news was released by Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, who made the announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The move comes at a crucial time for Mr. Zelensky, who is just back from a bruising visit to the United States, where he was unable to secure agreement for desperately needed money for his war effort that is threatened by political divisions in Congress.
“This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens,” Mr. Zelensky said on X in response to the news.
At the start of the E.U. meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary had said he planned to veto the official opening of Ukraine’s accession talks, claiming the country was not ready and that Ukraine’s joining the E.U. would be bad for the bloc and for Hungary. But, in the end, Mr. Orban appears to have abstained from the decision to let the talks begin.
Negotiations to join the bloc normally take a decade or longer and come with deep reforms to align the candidate country with E.U. rules and standards.
The next hurdle for Ukraine in the two-day E.U. summit is to secure 50 billion euros, about $52 billion, in proposed aid for the country. Mr. Orban, who has in the past delayed some E.U. sanctions against Russia and is seen as President Vladimir V. Putin’s closest ally in the bloc, said that the proposed aid for Ukraine should come only after Europe-wide elections planned for the summer.
A correction was made on Dec. 14, 2023: An earlier version of a capsule summary with this article referred incorrectly to Viktor Orban. He is the prime minister of Hungary, not the president.
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Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels bureau chief, leading coverage of the European Union. She joined The Times in 2019. More about Matina Stevis-Gridneff
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