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Vice-Minister Mitkus: We need to make progress shortly on EU accession negotiations with Ukraine

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Updated 2025-09-04

On September 1-2, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigitas Mitkus attended an informal meeting of the General Affairs Council of the European Union in Copenhagen. During the meeting, EU ministers focused on the EU enlargement process, preparations for enlargement, necessary reforms, and strengthening the rule of law.

Representatives of candidate countries and potential candidates also participated in the enlargement-focused discussion with EU27 ministers on EU. They discussed the importance of the Copenhagen criteria in the EU enlargement process and the benefits of gradual integration for a full-fledged EU membership.

Speaking on behalf of the Baltic and Nordic countries - Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden - the Vice-Minister Mitkus stressed that "the Copenhagen criteria and administrative and institutional capacity building remain the cornerstone of the EU enlargement". He recalled that although the path of integration is complex, the experience of the Baltic states demonstrates its value: "Over twenty years of membership, our region has achieved rapid economic growth, strengthened institutions and fully integrated into the single market."

"The enlargement of the EU is in our common interests - it benefits not only accession countries, but also the EU itself," said the Vice-Minister. He also stressed the need to preserve a credible accession process, and bilateral issues must not become an obstacle to achieving progress in the negotiations. Mitkus noted that Ukraine and Moldova had made sufficient progress in implementing reforms and are fully prepared for the opening of the first negotiating cluster. Lithuania aims for Ukraine to become a full member of the EU by 2030.

Ministers also exchanged views on the EU's own preparations for enlargement and the EU's internal reforms in anticipation of the European Commission's proposal for pre-enlargement policy reviews. "If we wish the EU to be ready for enlargement, we need to focus on the EU budget negotiations and key policy reviews," said the Vice-Minister.

Ministers of EU member states discussed strengthening the rule of law, ways to prevent breaches of it, and how to effectively encourage member states to return to compliance. The Vice-Minister Mitkus stressed that respect for the rule of law is essential for trust and the effective functioning of the Union as a whole. "If we expect candidate countries to uphold the principle of the rule of law, we must first set an example ourselves," noted the Vice-Minister.