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The EU will launch accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday, prompting gratitude in Kyiv and Chișinău.
“I am grateful to everyone on our team who worked hard to make this historic step a reality,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “Millions of Ukrainians, and indeed generations of our people, are realizing their European dream. Ukraine is returning to Europe, where it has belonged for centuries, as a full-fledged member of the European community.”
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said that “becoming an EU member is our path to peace, prosperity, and a better life for all citizens.”
The accession talks are set to start in Luxembourg on Tuesday afternoon via two intergovernmental conferences that the EU will hold separately with Ukraine and Moldova.
The opening of negotiations is the next step in what is likely to be a tough, yearslong journey toward membership. Ukraine and neighboring Moldova both applied to join the EU in 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The bloc’s decision to start talks comes two weeks after the EU announced that both countries have met the necessary requirements to begin negotiations.
EU diplomats have been pushing to begin the talks in June before Hungary takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1.
