Politico: Hungary ready to abandon blocking of Ukraineʼs EU accession talks with Moldova. They will start this month

Hungary is ready to abandon its long-standing blocking of negotiations on Ukraineʼs accession to the European Union, which will allow Kyiv and Moldova to begin official membership negotiations in the coming days.

This is reported by Politico, citing diplomatic sources.

According to the publicationʼs sources, the opening of the first negotiation cluster may take place on June 15 during the intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg.

Ukraine and Moldova applied for membership at the same time, so the progress of Moldovaʼs application directly depends on Ukraineʼs progress. When Viktor Orban was the Prime Minister of Hungary, Budapest opposed the start of negotiations with Kyiv over the issue of protecting the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia.

However, after a meeting of Ukrainian and Hungarian experts on June 1 on this topic, the new Hungarian leadership signaled its readiness to lift the veto. According to Politico sources, the Ukrainian side provided guarantees to address most of the concerns previously raised by Budapest.

The final decision on opening the first negotiation cluster for Ukraine and Moldova could be made by EU countries this week. However, further progress on the path to membership requires unanimous support from all 27 EU member states.

Hungaryʼs new Prime Minister Peter Magyar also said that "technical" talks with Ukraine regarding the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia are expected to be completed this week. He said he could meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky next week.

• In 2024, the then Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán put forward a list of 11 demands to Ukraine in order to unblock its further path to the European Union. They are related to the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia and access to education in the Hungarian language.
• In particular, it was about the wider use of the Hungarian language, simplifying access to education in Hungarian, and creating a representation of ethnic Hungarians in the Verkhovna Rada with the right to speak in Hungarian.
• After coming to power, Péter Magyar also insisted on fulfilling similar conditions. Consultations between Kyiv and Budapest on this issue began in late May.

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