Committee of Permanent Representatives
The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) is a preparatory body of the Council of the European Union, made up of the ambassadors or permanent representatives of the EU member states. It prepares the Council's decisions by reconciling member state positions before ministers take them up. Sanctions packages and other key EU foreign-policy decisions are routinely negotiated in Coreper before formal adoption.
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Ukraine's parliament adopts minority-education law demanded by Hungary, clearing path to two more EU accession clusters
On 12 October 2026, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada adopted and President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law expanding educational rights for national minorities and indigenous peoples — the change Hungary had demanded in exchange for unblocking two EU accession negotiation clusters. Hungary's foreign minister confirmed Budapest will agree to opening clusters 2 "Internal Market" and 3 "Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth" at a Ukraine–EU intergovernmental conference planned for 13 October in Luxembourg, where the EU's Coreper had already signalled readiness to approve the negotiation positions.
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EU Coreper fails to extend Russia sanctions as Slovakia and France push to delist oligarchs
EU ambassadors meeting on 21 September failed to reach consensus on extending the bloc's individual sanctions regime against Russia, which covers roughly 3,000 individuals and entities including Vladimir Putin. Slovakia and France insisted on delisting sanctioned oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman; a compromise deal that would have extended the regime for 36 months in exchange for delisting them collapsed after Latvia blocked it. Coreper scheduled a further meeting for the morning of 22 September, hours before the midnight deadline at which the entire regime would lapse without unanimous renewal. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha publicly called any delisting unacceptable and a wrong signal to Moscow.
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EU proposes largest-ever sanctions package against Russia's military-industrial complex
On 16 September, the European External Action Service presented a new sanctions package to EU ambassadors listing 1,576 individuals and entities connected to Russia's military-industrial complex. According to a source, it would be the largest single addition to the EU's Ukraine-related sanctions regime since its creation in 2014. The proposal still requires technical review and further approval by member-state ambassadors.