Negotiations on Ukraine and Moldova joining the European Union will begin on Tuesday, June 25, the Belgian government announced on Friday.
Belgium, which is acting on behalf of EU member states until the end of this month, said on X that ministers had approved the negotiating plans for talks with the two countries, allowing the negotiations to begin next week.
Ukraine and Moldova applied for EU membership after Russia's full-scale invasion of the former in February 2022. Moldova, like its larger neighbour Ukraine, has a breakaway region called Transnistria that aligns itself to Russia.
But the start of talks does not mean the two countries will be joining the EU any time soon: every step of the process requires unanimous agreement among current member states, and several other countries have been waiting far longer.
EU leaders formally recognized Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for membership one year ago, in June 2023.
They granted candidate status to Georgia in December 2023, at the same time as agreeing to open talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
The other official candidates are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.
The last country to be admitted to the EU was Croatia, which joined in 2013. Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007 and 10 countries joined in 2004.