Talks over Ukraine's EU accession require agreement from all member states - EC spokesperson

BRUSSELS. April 22 (Interfax) - The European Commission (EC) views favorably Ukraine's readiness for talks over its accession to the European Union but this requires agreement from all EU member states, EC spokesperson Guillaume Mercier said on Tuesday.

"Enlargement remains a top priority for this Commission. We opened negotiations with Ukraine in June 2024, and Ukraine is making steady progress towards the EU accession. We are now in this process of going through all the bilateral screenings of the different clusters, and we will continue till autumn," Mercier told a briefing in Brussels.

"Our position is that Ukraine has fulfilled all the conditions to open the first cluster on the fundamentals, but this requires obviously the agreement from all the member states. This discussion is happening in the Council," Mercier said.

For its part, the EC is helping Ukraine as much as it can to find potential technical, political decisions and provides financial assistance, he said. "We continue to do so, and we'll continue to engage with all the member states," Mercier said.

In the case of Ukraine, the screening process, an analysis of how Ukraine's laws conform with those of the EU, which is necessary for it to join the EU, has been fast-tracked and "experts from the Commission as well are working closely with the Ukrainian counterparts to make sure that this process, the screening process, can go as fast as possible," Mercier said.

"On our side, we're fully committed and we fully support Ukraine, but as I said ultimately the discussion needs to take place in the Council," he said.

It was reported that Ukraine's EU accession plans are being blocked by Hungary.