LUXEMBOURG, June  25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The European Union on Tuesday kicked
off accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, setting the fragile
ex-Soviet states on a long path towards membership that Russia has tried to
block.

The landmark move signals in particular a vote of confidence in Kyiv's
future at a time when Moscow has momentum on the battlefield almost two and a
half years into the Kremlin's invasion.

"Dear friends, today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the
relationship between Ukraine and the European Union," Ukraine's Prime Minister
Denys Shmygal said via videolink at the start of the talks.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a "historic day" as officials from
Kyiv and the EU's 27 member states met in Luxembourg.

"We will never be derailed from our path to a united Europe and to our
common home of all European nations," the Ukrainian leader wrote on social
media.

Ukraine and later Moldova lodged their bids to join the EU in the aftermath
of Russia's assault in February 2022.

The opening of the talks marks just the beginning of a protracted process
of reforms in Ukraine that is strewn with political obstacles and will likely
take many years -- and may never lead to membership.

Standing in the way along that journey will be not just Russia's efforts at
destabilisation but reticence from doubters inside the EU, most notably Hungary.

But European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called the opening of
talks "very good news for the people of Ukraine, Moldova, and the entire
European Union".

"The path ahead will be challenging but full of opportunities," she wrote
on X on Tuesday.

- 'Fast way' -

So far, Ukraine has won plaudits for kickstarting a raft of reforms on
curbing graft and political interference, even as war rages.

Ukraine's lead negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna, vowed
that Kyiv "will be able to complete everything before 2030" to join the bloc.

Russia's war in Ukraine has reinvigorated a push in the EU to take on new
members, after years in which countries particularly in the Western Balkans
made little progress on their hopes to join.

The EU in December 2023 also granted candidate status to Georgia, another
of Russia's former Soviet neighbours.

It likewise approved accession negotiations with Bosnia and has talks
ongoing with Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia.

The meetings with Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday will set off a process of
screening of how far laws in the countries already comply with EU standards and
how much more work lies ahead.

Once that is done the EU then has to begin laying out conditions for
negotiations on 35 subjects, ranging from taxation to environmental policy.
Stefanishyna said the next step should come in early 2025.

- 'Stronger together' -

EU countries pushed to start the talks now before Hungary -- the
friendliest country to Russia in the bloc -- takes over the EU's rotating
presidency next month.

Budapest has been opposed to pressing ahead with Kyiv's membership bid,
arguing that Ukraine was unfairly moving ahead for political reasons.

"From what I see here as we speak, they are very far from meeting the
accession criteria," Hungary's Europe minister Janos Boka said on Tuesday.

Accepting Ukraine -- a war-ravaged country of some 40 million people --
would be a major step for the EU, and there are calls for the bloc to carry out
reforms to streamline how it works before accepting new members.

The start of the talks resonates powerfully in Ukraine, as it was a desire
for closer ties with the EU that sparked protests back in 2014 that eventually
spiralled into the full-blown crisis with Russia.

The negotiations also come at a tense time in Moldova after the United
States, Britain and Canada warned of a Russian "plot" to influence the
country's presidential elections in October.

Wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova's pro-Western
authorities frequently accuse the Kremlin of interfering in its internal
affairs.

President Maia Sandu has accused Moscow, which has troops stationed in a
breakaway region of the country, of aiming to destabilise Moldova ahead of the
vote.

"Our future is within the European family," Sandu wrote on X. "We are
stronger together."