European Union opens negotiations on 2 clusters in Ukraine's accession to EU

BRUSSELS. Oct 14 (Interfax) - The European Union and Ukraine have taken another important step in the accession process by opening negotiations on two clusters, namely, internal market and competitiveness and inclusive growth, the Council of the European Union said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We have today reached another milestone on Ukraine's EU membership journey. The Irish presidency is committed to advance Ukraine's EU accession process," Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European affairs and defense of Ireland, said as cited by the statement.

"The internal market cluster covers EU policies related to the free movement of goods, services, workers and capital, as well as common rules on competition, financial services, company law and consumer protection," the statement said.

The other cluster "covers EU policies related to economic competitiveness and growth, including taxation, economic and monetary policy, industry, digital transformation, employment, education, research and customs," it said.

"EU accession is a merit-based process," it said. Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the EU legislation and relevant European standards will continue throughout the negotiations, it said.

The decision follows the opening of negotiations on the cluster on external relations in July 2026, the Council said in its release.

"Clusters are core thematic groupings within the EU's accession negotiation framework setting the parameters for how candidate countries align with the EU acquis in these fields. Clusters are divided into chapters that correspond to different policy fields subject to negotiations," it said.

Following the introduction of the revised methodology for accession negotiations in 2020, negotiating chapters are divided into six thematic clusters: fundamentals; internal market; competitiveness and inclusive growth; green agenda and sustainable connectivity; resources, agriculture and cohesion; external relations, it said.

Four negotiation clusters out of six - fundamentals, external relations, internal market, competitiveness and inclusive growth - have been opened for Ukraine after the decision of the Council of the European Union of October 13, 2026.