The European Affairs Ministers of the EU Member States, meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 12 December, failed to reach agreement on opening accession negotiations with Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina and on granting candidate status to Georgia, referring the matter back to their leaders.
The conclusions adopted state that “the EU Council takes note of the Commission’s report of 8 November 2023” on Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Georgia “and its recommendation, and looks forward to the forthcoming discussion of European Council on this matter”. According to several sources, a group of Member States has considered that the discussion and decisions on enlargement should be based on the Commission’s report of 8 November.
Although Hungary continues to block the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine, the draft conclusions of the European Council, dated 11 December, state that “the European Council decides to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and with the Republic of Moldova and to grant candidate country status to Georgia”, on the “understanding that the measures set out in the Council conclusions of 12 December 2023 will be taken”. The European Council could also invite the EU Council to adopt the respective negotiating frameworks once the measures set out in the EU Council conclusions of 12 December have been taken.
According to a source at the Elysée Palace, all the Member States except Hungary are in favour of opening negotiations with Ukraine.
Similarly, according to the draft conclusions, the European Council is ready to open EU accession negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina “once the necessary degree of compliance with the accession criteria has been achieved”.
The European Council could also endorse the EU Council’s conclusions.
To see the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/a3u (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)