Taras Kachka Named Ukraine's New Ambassador to the EU

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BRUSSELS — Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s former deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, has been named as Kyiv’s new ambassador to the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Friday .

Kachka takes over from Vsevolod Chentsov, who will take up Kachka’s previous role as deputy prime minister in charge of integration with the EU in a role-swap.

The switch forms part of a wider wartime reshuffle that has recast several senior portfolios, following Zelenskyy’s dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov — a move that sparked protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Stepping into a key position handling relations with the EU institutions in the midst of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, Kachka brings experience managing the details of Kyiv’s bid to join the EU.

Kachka was in Brussels on July 14 for the opening of a new negotiating “cluster,” or formal legal step on the path to membership. Despite being in talks with the EU for months, Kyiv only opened its first negotiating cluster in June after Hungary lifted a long-standing veto.

Ukraine had hoped to open all six of its negotiating clusters with the EU by mid-July, but due to fresh reservations from Hungary only two of them have been opened.

Speaking to POLITICO last week, Kachka voiced a “certain disappointment” over the “lack of a feeling of urgency” among some EU countries, but said that he was working closely with Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán to address outstanding concerns about the rights of a Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

“There is political inertia and a lot of prejudice that still exist in Hungarian society,” he said. “That’s why our common task is to show that the enlargement process is not undermining them [the Hungarian minority].”

Announcing Kachka’s appointment, Zelenskyy wrote that Ukraine was awaiting decisions on four more clusters.

“I believe Taras will be able to carry out this work most effectively at Ukraine’s Mission to the European Union in Brussels,” he wrote, adding that Kachka would also do the job of trade representative to the EU for Ukraine.