00:00And now to a very special candidate country, Ukraine.
00:04Kiev hopes to open its two remaining EU negotiating clusters before the end of the year, despite delays in Budapest.
00:11In an exclusive interview with Euronews ahead of the European Commission's latest enlargement report,
00:17Ukraine's ambassador to the EU, Taras Kachka, said there were no substantive disagreements with Hungary holding up the process.
00:25He also defended Kiev's progress on reforms, despite concerns over delays in adopting key legislation.
00:32For more on this, our Ukraine correspondent Sasha Vakulina joins me now in the studio.
00:37Good morning, Sasha.
00:39So the European Commission is about to release its latest enlargement assessment.
00:44How does Ukraine see its progress towards EU membership and what challenges does Kiev also see?
00:53Kiev does see challenges, but what is important, and this is something that Taras Kachka told me,
00:58is for Ukraine to get the timeline and to get the timeline not postponed, but rather fast-tracked.
01:05This was, of course, an exclusive interview, the first one since Taras Kachka took over the new position
01:10as the head of the mission of Ukraine to the European Union.
01:12So it was really interesting to see his perspective.
01:15Also, of course, given Ukraine's unique case.
01:17Now, we are talking about the country almost five years into defending itself against Russia's brutal full-scale invasion,
01:25implementing those reforms and pushing to open those clusters during the all-out war.
01:31And at the same time, when you look at all the candidates, Stefan, of course, Ukraine regarding its size and
01:36importance,
01:37this is a different case which will be much harder for the European Union to accept and to digest.
01:41Let's take a listen to what he said.
01:43The report should highlight how fast we can move on closing the chapters,
01:51but also indicating what are the maybe some challenges.
01:55We do not see challenges in domestic politics in terms of applying a key.
02:00We might see challenges that are stemming from security situation, Russian aggression,
02:04and the fact that Ukraine is really one of the biggest candidate status among the four frontrunners.
02:13It's definitely the biggest one.
02:14So therefore, there might be more complex negotiations, but it is not a problem.
02:20You've mentioned the challenge.
02:21Some of those are in regards to Ukraine's reform commitment.
02:25Some important reforms have faced delays in the parliament in Kyiv.
02:30What is holding up this progress?
02:32Government and parliament is getting stronger in the recent weeks.
02:36So therefore, the tempo will be only faster.
02:39At least I expect this and there are chances for this.
02:42So therefore, I think that we, Ukraine definitely is delivering, is getting to deliver faster and better.
02:49And I hope that the enlargement package report will confirm that this general assessment of Ukraine being able to adopt
02:57everything by the end of 2027
02:59and therefore be advanced in 2027 with closing chapters will be confirmed.
03:06I've got to mention the amended minority education legislation, which was, of course, crucial as it cleared the way for
03:12two Monegu sitting clusters to open.
03:15And yet Hungary now blocked the progress on the two remaining clusters.
03:20What does Budapest want now?
03:23I think that this word block misleads us.
03:28Indeed, Hungary requested an additional time for consideration for brainstorming on certain decisions.
03:36For the second and third clusters, we adopted what we agreed previously.
03:42So that and it was something that was elaborated during previous several years.
03:47Therefore, it was well known for Ukrainian society, for Ukrainian MPs, and it was rather additional boost for decision making
03:56in Hungary.
03:57So now we see that we have a full mutual understanding of Hungary.
04:02So therefore, it is a matter of time and planning how we open remaining two clusters before the end of
04:09this year.
04:10You say Hungary and the government in Budapest is taking its time a little bit.
04:14Does it still have to do with the minority education, right?
04:17Or there is another reason?
04:19No, it's a matter of processing.
04:20On the same issue, on the minority rights?
04:22No, no, generally.
04:23So that for the clusters, clusters 4 and 5, for the policies that are covered.
04:27So this is a different issue, not the one that has already been sorted.
04:30This is what I'm trying to understand.
04:31There are no issues.
04:32There is a processing of all these documents.
04:34Right.
04:34So that there are no substantive requirements, disagreements or concerns.
04:38So this is rather a matter of how the documents are processed, assessed, read, because there are like several hundred
04:46pages of documents in this, let's say, support in the opening of this cluster.
04:50Right.
04:51And on the minority education legislation, all adopted, all agreed, has it been implemented in Ukraine?
04:56Yes, they work.
04:57These rules are works.
04:59So they are all in place.
05:00Some of them are, let's say, have been de facto operational even before.
05:04So now they properly work for everyone, for every school with national minorities.
05:11When we spoke last time, I asked you about the possibility of Ukraine getting the idea floated by some member
05:17states about the associate membership and somehow half steps towards that.
05:21Does that change the take for Kyiv, knowing that there is another country that might get different type of associate
05:28membership, half stepping into the European Union?
05:31The case of Canada illustrates that associate membership is a term that is rather better suits the partnerships with friends
05:42who are friends, but rather distance and will not join the European Union.
05:47I hope that we will still have four frontrunners with Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro and Albania.
05:53And it means that EU sees us as a frontrunner, so that's why we don't need to shift to any
06:02alternatives.
