EU enlargement is one of the priorities of Denmark's presidency of the European Union and Copenhagen would like Ukraine and Moldova to move forward on this path simultaneously.

Source:Danish Ambassador to the EU Carsten Grønbech-Jensen in response to a query from a European Pravda correspondent in Brussels on 30 June

Details:Denmark, which will hold the EU Council presidency from 1 July, will seek to ensure that Ukraine and Moldova conduct negotiations on EU membership at the same pace.

"We want to advance with Ukraine and Moldova simultaneously, and we are at the moment thinking about how to be able to do that," Grønbech-Jensen emphasised.

The ambassador noted that the EU is facing difficulties in fulfilling this task with regard to Ukraine, "because we do not have unanimous support", referring to Ukraine’s assessment that it is ready to open negotiation clusters.

"There are legal constraints, there are political constraints, and if I shared our considerations with you here, I'm not sure we would be able to move along so quickly," said Grønbech-Jensen.

"We want to move forward, and hopefully we will be able to do that, but it's not straightforward," he added.

Background:

• Earlier, speculation arose that the EU might speed up accession talks with Moldova by decoupling them from Ukraine, whose process Hungary has blocked.
• Meanwhile, Brussels is developing a scenario for "parallel negotiations" on Ukraine's accession to the EU, bypassing Hungary. The first steps have been taken, though officials prefer not to announce this.

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