Today, the EU and Ukraine took another important step in the accession process by opening negotiations on the so-called ‘internal market’ and ‘competitiveness and inclusive growth’ clusters.
The cluster on ‘internal market’ covers EU policies related to the free movement of goods, services, workers and capital, as well as common rules on competition, financial services, company law and consumer protection.
The cluster on ‘competitiveness and inclusive growth’ covers EU policies related to economic competitiveness and growth, including taxation, economic and monetary policy, industry, digital transformation, employment, education, research and customs.
| “We have today reached another milestone on Ukraine’s EU membership journey. The Irish presidency is committed to advance Ukraine’s EU accession process. Today’s decision demonstrates Ukraine’s resilience and determination to move forward on reforms, against the backdrop of extremely difficult circumstances.” |
| — <span “, “>Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European affairs and defence of Ireland |
The EU has also set benchmarks for the future provisional closure of those chapters.
EU accession is a merit-based process. Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the EU acquis and relevant European standards will continue throughout the negotiations.
Today’s decision follows the opening of negotiations on the cluster on external relations in July 2026.
More on clusters
Clusters are core thematic groupings within the EU’s accession negotiation framework setting the parameters for how candidate countries align with the EU acquis in these fields. Clusters are divided into chapters that correspond to different policy fields subject to negotiations.
The cluster ‘internal market’ comprises 9 distinct negotiating chapters on:
- free movement of goods (1)
- freedom of movement for workers (2)
- right of establishment and freedom to provide services (3)
- free movement of capital (4)
- company law (6)
- intellectual property law (7)
- competition policy (8)
- financial services (9), and
- consumer and health protection (28)
The cluster ‘competitiveness and inclusive growth’ comprises 8 distinct negotiating chapters on:
- digital transformation and media (10)
- taxation (16)
- economic and monetary policy (17)
- social policy and employment (19)
- enterprise and industrial policy (20)
- science and research (25)
- education and culture (26), and
- customs union (29)
Background
Following the introduction of the revised methodology for accession negotiations in 2020, negotiating chapters are divided into 6 thematic clusters:
- Fundamentals
- Internal market
- Competitiveness and inclusive growth
- Green agenda and sustainable connectivity
- Resources, agriculture and cohesion
- External relations
Each chapter corresponds to a different policy field. There are 33 chapters in total.
- EU common position on Cluster 2: internal market
- EU common position on Cluster 3: competitiveness and inclusive growth
- Third Accession Conference with Ukraine, 14 July 2026
- EU opens accession negotiations with Ukraine, Council press release, 25 June 2024
- Ukraine (background information)