FT: Hungary ready to lift veto on Ukraineʼs EU accession talks

This week, Hungary is likely to lift its veto on the technical stage of Ukraineʼs EU accession process.

This is reported by the Financial Times (FT), citing sources.

According to two people familiar with the matter, Péter Magyar has instructed Hungarian diplomats not to block sending letters to Ukraine and Moldova about the potential opening of the next two clusters of negotiations — the internal market and competitiveness — during working meetings this week. This is a procedural but symbolically important step forward.

Hungaryʼs full political support for the opening of these clusters will depend on whether the Ukrainian parliament votes on October 12 for a law on expanding educational opportunities for national minorities.

If the Verkhovna Rada passes the law, it will allow the process of opening negotiations to be officially launched before the EU leadersʼ summit in Brussels in 10 days, the sources added.

Once these two clusters are opened, two more will remain — on the environment and agriculture + regional development. The European Commission wants to open them to Ukraine and Moldova by the end of the year.

All 33 negotiating chapters, grouped into six clusters, require unanimous approval by all 27 EU countries to be closed after the European Commission certifies that the candidate countryʼs legislation is in line with EU standards. Two more chapters — on how the new member will be integrated into EU structures and other outstanding issues — are addressed in the final stage of accession negotiations.

What are Ukraineʼs successes on its path to the EU?

Ukraine intensified cooperation with the EU in 2014, after the victory of the Revolution of Dignity. In the same year, the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament simultaneously approved the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. It entered into full force on September 1, 2017. Ukraineʼs path to membership in the European Union and NATO was enshrined in the Constitution in February 2019.

On February 28, 2022, Ukraine applied for membership in the European Union. On June 17, the European Commission recommended granting Ukraine candidate status for EU membership and set out a number of conditions that the country must meet before starting negotiations on EU membership. On June 23, EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit, where they granted Ukraine candidate status.

At the end of 2023, the European Union allowed negotiations to begin. They were formally launched in 2024, but the process slowed down, in particular due to the position of then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who blocked the opening of negotiation clusters.

After a change of government in Hungary, the country lifted its 17-month veto on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU in June 2026. However, within weeks, Hungary threatened to stop Ukraineʼs accession to the EU if Kyiv did not implement an agreement on the rights of Hungarians in Transcarpathia.

Now two clusters have been opened for Ukraine — "Fundamentals" and "Foreign Relations".

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