TN.cz | Ukraine and Moldova begin EU membership talks

In Luxembourg, formal accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova to the European Union have begun. Is this a significant progress towards their eventual EU membership? Which of these two countries has a stronger position? And how does the screening process unfold? Viktor Daněk, Deputy Director of EUROPEUM Institute, discussed these topics for TN.cz.

Next week, Hungary will assume the presidency, which is a strong opponent of Ukraine's accession to the European Union. It was Hungary that blocked the political decision several months ago to open accession negotiations, which is now being followed by the technical initiation of the negotiation framework. It is evident that if this had not been accomplished by the end of June, Hungary would have used its position as the presiding state to deliberately postpone any further decisions.

You can listen to the entire segment here.

Viktor Daněk
Deputy Director

Before entering the NGO sphere, Viktor Daněk worked for almost ten years as a journalist. During his time with the public service Czech radio, he focused mainly on covering EU affairs. He spent almost five years as a permanent correspondent in Brussels, where he cooperated with other media outlets. Before his career in journalism, he gained experience in the area of marketing and communication in the Česká spořitelna banking group and at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He holds university degrees in Media Studies and International Relations. Viktor Daněk joined the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in October 2023. He continues to be active in the media as a freelancer. His main areas of interest are institutional questions of European integration, globalisation and the EU’s climate and migration policy.