The European Commission wants to obtain a mandate from the Council of the EU to continue accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova at an expert level, without the formal opening of negotiation clusters.

Source: European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, while presenting the EU Enlargement Report at the European Parliament in Brussels on 4 November, as reported by a European Pravda correspondent

Details: The European Commission seeks the EU Council's backing to continue accession talks with Ukraine at a technical level.

"One of the solutions, which could now enable the opening of cluster one or all the clusters for Ukraine and Moldova, would be that we would get a Commission mandate from the Council so that we can go on at the working level," Kos said.

She expressed her conviction that, in order to achieve results, the EU must move away from the requirement for unanimous support by all member states for each of the 150 steps in the accession process.

"We should stick to unanimity [when] giving a status [to the member state] and finishing. I will fight for this every time," the commissioner said.

Kos recalled her most recent visit to Ukraine, during which she told the Ukrainian authorities: "You don't need Orbán to do the necessary reforms."

"I hope that we will be able, together with the presidency, to reach this agreement, that on the working level, we can go on working cluster by cluster," Marta Kos said.

"And when all the conditions are met, then we will also open [the clusters] officially," she added.

Background:

• As European Pravda reported, at the EU leaders' summit in Brussels on 23 October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again called on the EU to find a way to open negotiation clusters for Ukraine's accession and to "remove the artificial blockade".
• At the same time, it was reported that the EU is ready to launch a new way to bypass Hungary's veto – "frontloading".

Read more: Frontloading: EU's alternative path to break Hungary's veto on Ukraine's accession talks

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