On Tuesday, 28 January, during a working visit to Brussels, Belgium, Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice of Ukraine, met with European Affairs Ministers of the European Union on the eve of the EU General Affairs Council's meeting to discuss issues related to the enlargement of the Union.

The event brought together EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas. The event was hosted by Sweden, represented by Minister for EU Affairs Jessica Rosencrantz.

The EU member states and the EU leadership underlined their support for Ukraine on its path to membership, discussed further steps in the negotiation process, gradual sectoral integration, and expectations from the Polish and Danish presidencies of the EU Council. Particular attention was paid to the European Commission's report on the results of the screening of Ukrainian legislation under Cluster 1 on fundamental issues, which includes the rule of law, anti-corruption policy and fundamental rights.

"Undoubtedly, Ukraine is taking a very ambitious approach to setting priorities for 2025 as part of the EU accession negotiations. I would like to emphasise our readiness: the country has high institutional capacity, strong support from citizens and an ambitious agenda. We look forward to the support of the Member States. Your support will contribute to the unity and cohesion within Ukraine, both as part of the European integration path and in our confrontation with the enemy," Olha Stefanishyna stressed.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that Ukraine had reached the final stage of developing the roadmaps for the rule of law and public administration reforms needed to launch the Fundamentals Cluster and would soon have them for consideration by the member states.

The official informed her European counterparts about the progress of the screening within the cluster on the functioning of the EU's Internal Market and also said that this week Ukraine would start bilateral meetings on Cluster 6, External Relations.

"Our team is moving dynamically in the screening process for Cluster 2, Internal Market, which is essentially the bulk of the reforms needed to join the EU. We are talking about key transformations for integration into the EU market, so I do hope that this year we will manage to open this Cluster as well," said Olha Stefanishyna.

Summing up the discussion, European Commissioner Marta Kos stressed the importance of uniting the whole society around the European integration goal.

"The European integration process should become a national project: it should be the responsibility of the government, parliament, opposition, civil society, every village and city. I hope that during the Polish presidency, we will manage to open the first Cluster, Fundamentals. It is also possible to open another Cluster, External Relations, if we do our job properly. However, this is not possible without the support of the Member States... Many representatives of the Member States have today confirmed their readiness to support this," said the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.

During the final briefing, Swedish Minister for EU Affairs Jessica Rosencrantz noted that the meeting with EU ministers had become an important step towards the opening of the first negotiating cluster with Ukraine, which could be possible as early as spring 2025.

"Supporting Ukraine is the most important political priority of Sweden and, in my opinion, of Europe, both in the military, political, financial sphere and in supporting Ukraine in its aspirations for EU membership. And it is obvious to me that if putin wanted to put an end to Ukraine's aspirations to join the EU with his full-scale invasion, the result was quite the opposite. And now we are witnessing an accelerated reform process, as well as the unity of member states in supporting Ukraine," she stressed.

For her part, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas underlined the importance of discussing not only Ukraine's European integration progress but also the importance of holding russia accountable for its crimes.

"We have to support Ukraine in the short term, but also look to the future, and that's why the enlargement process is really important, because it gives hope to the people of Ukraine. We can talk about clusters, we can talk about divisions, but for the people, it means that there will be a better future for Ukraine after the war," said High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas.