Zelensky and Sandu press EU talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Moldovan President Maia Sandu used a Kyiv meeting on April 26 to press the European Union to open membership talks now. (kyivpost.com) (ukrinform.net) Sandu said both countries had fulfilled the conditions for the official start of accession negotiations and told Brussels to reward that progress. Zelensky said Ukraine and Moldova were working to open all six negotiating clusters. (kyivpost.com) (logos-pres.md) (unn.ua) The two leaders said their talks also covered security, border cooperation, defense, infrastructure and energy. Zelensky described European Union membership as a shared path for Kyiv and Chisinau. (ukrinform.net) The timing was deliberate. Sandu was in Kyiv and Chornobyl on the 40th anniversary of the 1986 nuclear disaster, linking the visit to solidarity across borders and to Europe’s security. (kyivindependent.com) (news.az) What they want next is technical but important: the European Union organizes accession talks in six policy “clusters,” and opening them moves a candidate from broad political approval into line-by-line negotiations. (kyivindependent.com) (politico.eu) Brussels has been signaling that the technical work is done. A European Commission spokesperson said Ukraine and Moldova had made enough reform progress to be ready for the official opening of all negotiation clusters. (newsukraine.rbc.ua) Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said last week she hoped the first cluster could open very soon, possibly under Cyprus’s European Union presidency, which runs until June 30. (kyivindependent.com) The politics around that timetable changed after Hungary’s government shift. Politico reported that Viktor Orbán’s exit removed the main blocker to unfreezing the clusters for Ukraine and Moldova. (politico.eu) European Union leaders also discussed Ukraine at their April 23-24 informal meeting in Cyprus, where the bloc focused on the geopolitical environment and Europe’s response. (consilium.europa.eu) (pravda.com.ua) For Zelensky and Sandu, the message in Kyiv was that Brussels has already had the proof and should now make the decision. (kyivpost.com) (logos-pres.md)