EU states push for June start to Ukraine membership talks

(ANSA-AFP) - BRUSSELS, MAY 21 - Several EU countries on Tuesday called for the bloc to start membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in June, but Hungary threatened to throw a spanner in the works. The 27-nation EU took the landmark step in December of agreeing to open talks on its war-torn neighbour -- and fellow ex-Soviet state Moldova -- joining the club. But to actually begin the negotiations the bloc's member states still have to sign off on a formal framework for the process, proposed in March by Brussels. At a meeting in Brussels, France's EU affairs minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for "the effective opening of negotiations" before Belgium's rotating presidency concludes at the end of June. That statement was echoed by other ministers -- including from Ireland and Sweden. (ANSA-AFP).