EU formally opens accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova after years of delay

Summary

After two years of delays driven largely by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's repeated vetoes, the European Union on Tuesday formally opened accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, a milestone that carries weight well beyond the procedural. For Kyiv, the talks represent something more than bureaucratic process: EU membership is both a security anchor and an implicit verdict on which direction Ukraine is heading after more than two years of grinding war with Russia. The timing is remarkable on its own terms. Ukraine is negotiating the fine points of judicial independence and anti-corruption benchmarks while simultaneously defending its territory from active Russian invasion. Moldova, the small landlocked neighbor that once seemed an unlikely EU candidate, opened talks at the same moment, a pairing that signals Brussels intends to treat post-Soviet integration as a regional project, not just a Ukrainian one. Orban, who had blocked the process throughout his tenure as Hungarian prime minister, lost power in recent elections, and his departure removed the last structural obstacle. Ukraine still faces an enormous distance to travel: the 27-member bloc's accession standards are exacting, and no country has ever applied for membership mid-war. But the opening of talks, delayed as it was, is the first real institutional step on that road.