The EU opened Ukraine's Cluster 2 (Internal Market) and Cluster 3 (Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth) at the fourth intergovernmental conference on 13 October 2026, confirmed in President von der Leyen's statement of 16 October in the Commission press corner and by Ukrainska Pravda; the Council site blocked reading.
History. 1 of 4: only Croatia in 2009 got its chapters within a month of the consent; Turkey 2016 was the one case that met a promised deadline, after 104 days.
Hunch. EU officials told The Guardian on 6 October that they hope to open the two new parts next week, a day after the Financial Times reported Hungary would drop its veto.
The October market resolves on Council of the EU and European Commission statements on the intergovernmental conference with Ukraine: YES if at least one new group of talks (cluster) is opened for Ukraine by the end of 16 October 2026, NO if none is. If the Council pages cannot be opened, the Commission press corner, The Guardian and BBC News settle it.
We looked for cases where one EU country stopped blocking a candidate's entry talks, and every member country then had to agree to open new parts of those talks. We found four since 2009: Croatia once, Turkey twice and Serbia once. Each time we counted the days from the blocking country's consent to the opening.