European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna on Monday spoke of a “significant milestone” for both Ukraine and Moldova, with intergovernmental conferences between the European Union and both countries taking place to formally open negotiations for both to join the bloc.

She said that Cyprus, in its role as the current holder of the EU Council’s presidency, “has worked in a results-driven manner, with perseverance, diligently and intensively” to bring about the commencement of negotiations.

“Since assuming the presidency in January, we have advanced the necessary consultations with a strong sense of responsibility and coordinated the processes that have led today to the formal opening of ‘cluster one’,” she said.

She added that the opening of that first cluster “guides Ukraine and Moldova from political aspiration to concrete commitment and implementation of the process that will bring them closer to the united European family”.

“Enlargement remains both a strategic investment and a geopolitical necessity, as it contributes to security and stability at a time of global upheaval that is testing regional peace,” she said.

Cyprus, she added, “remains fully committed to advancing the enlargement agenda and to delivering tangible progress for all candidate countries, in full respect of the merit-based principle, that lies at the heart of the accession process”.

She went on to say that Cyprus “understands well that accession is a security guarantee and an expansion of [the] European space of security, stability, and prosperity”.

Additionally, she pointed out that alongside the first intergovernmental conferences to be held with Moldova and Ukraine, another intergovernmental conference – the 27th in total – was to be held with Montenegro, the country she described as “the frontrunner of the enlargement process”.

She said that it was hoped that further chapters would be closed with Montenegro, which has completed 14 of the 33 negotiating chapters so far.

It has now been almost 13 years since Croatia, the last country to join the EU, did so in 2013, and in the intervening years, one member state, the United Kingdom, has left the bloc.