(Reuters) – Ukraine’s parliament on Friday approved four bills needed to begin negotiations for accession to the European Union.
The Ukrainian Parliament’s website confirmed that President Volodimir Zelensky had ratified all the bills. He described them as a key step in Ukraine’s bid for EU membership.
A European summit will be held next week to determine whether to begin accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova.
Such a decision requires unanimity of the Union’s 27 members, and Hungary is seen as the main potential obstacle.
Hungary is demanding that Ukraine change its laws on minorities, particularly regarding education. A small Hungarian-speaking minority lives in western Ukraine.
“We hope that Ukraine’s efforts will be fully appreciated by the leaders of the European Union and that European promises will be kept,” the Ukrainian president said during his daily video address.
Volodimir Zelensky added that Ukraine had “done everything that was expected of it” in implementing the EU recommendations.
The bills adopted on Friday concern national minorities, increasing the staff of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, granting additional powers to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption in matters of asset control, as well as as well as on provisions relating to the public declaration of assets.
(Reporting Yuliia Dysa and Ron Popeski; French version Camille Raynaud)
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