EU summit fails to agree on opening all negotiating clusters for Ukraine’s accession

Ukraine’s hopes, and those of its supporters within the EU, for a swift opening of negotiating clusters could not be secured in a decision at the European Union summit in Brussels.

This is reported by Evropeiska Pravda, citing documents in the outlet’s possession and sources in Brussels.

Despite Kyiv’s expectations that the EU would be able to open the remaining five accession negotiating clusters in July, this position could not be enshrined in the summit’s final decision. The summit conclusions on Ukraine do contain language about the need to open further clusters, but they include neither a reference to the need to open all clusters nor any indication of a timeline.

“The European Council welcomes… the opening on 15 June 2026 of the ‘Fundamentals’ cluster and looks forward to the opening of other clusters on the basis of a merit-based approach,” the decision states.

In Evropeiska Pravda’s assessment, the formulation “merit-based approach” could be used to delay the opening of the remaining clusters — in particular, until Ukraine fulfills certain reforms.

The question of opening all clusters was raised at the European Council meeting by President Volodymyr Zelensky and “several heads of state,” but there were clearly not enough votes to adopt a decision. A source for the outlet explained: “Unanimity is required, and it was not there.” According to the source, there was effectively no substantive discussion on the matter, as there was no prospect of a decision being adopted in the form that would have been desirable for Kyiv.