EU Opens Accession Negotiations With Ukraine and Moldova on Cluster 6 (External Relations)

At the third EU-Ukraine and EU-Moldova accession conferences, held back-to-back in Brussels on July 14, the parties opened negotiations on Cluster 6 ('External Relations'), which sets the parameters for how the two candidate countries align their foreign, trade and defence policies with the EU acquis. The move follows the opening of Cluster 1 ('Fundamentals') on June 15. The European Commission considers both countries technically ready to open all six clusters, but Hungary's Magyar government continued blocking the remaining four at the technical level, leaving politics — not readiness — as the constraint on further progress.