Afghanistan, June 4 -- The European Union has begun formal preparations for opening accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, marking another step in the two countries' efforts to join the bloc.
Russia's TASS news agency reported that Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, announced the start of work aimed at launching the first phase of membership talks.
According to the report, Cyprus pledged to continue consultations among EU member states in the coming days to finalize discussions on opening the negotiations.
The first round of accession talks could begin on June 15 during an intergovernmental conference on EU enlargement in Luxembourg.
The negotiations are designed to align the laws...