The European Union will make decisions regarding enlargement based on the Copenhagen criteria and its decisions, ensuring the predictability and fairness of the accession process.

This position of the EU was outlined on Tuesday in Luxembourg at the opening of the Intergovernmental Conference, marking the beginning of official negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Hadja Lahbib.

"Our negotiations are based on Article 49 of the Treaty of the European Union... The Council remains firmly committed to taking the enlargement process forward on the basis of agreed principles and conclusions, which integrate the revised methodology so that the accession process is more predictable, more credible, more dynamic and subject to stronger political steering," she said.

The minister said in accordance with previous Council conclusions and within the framework of the Copenhagen political criteria, the Council "reaffirms the need for fair and rigorous conditionality, the principle of own merits and reversibility."

"The Council stresses the importance of ensuring that the EU can maintain and deepen its own development, including its capacity to integrate new members. The impact of enlargement on the main policy areas of the EU will be assessed along the process of accession negotiations. The EU expects Ukraine to continue to take ownership and demonstrate the credibility of their commitments and political will through the implementation of necessary reforms and tangible progress on the fundamentals. The active participation of civil society in the reform process remains important to achieving successful long-term implementation," Lahbib said.