European Council President Antonio Costa is trying to advance Ukraineʼs application for EU membership, despite Hungarian resistance.
This is reported by Politico, citing sources.
According to five diplomats and officials the publication spoke with, Costa is trying to enlist the support of EU countries to simplify the process of accepting new members and break the deadlock on the membership prospects of Ukraine and Moldova.
The diplomatic initiative is an attempt to circumvent a veto by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has used it to block Ukraineʼs path to membership in the bloc. EU rules require all 27 member states to approve each stage of the accession process.
Moldova, which is also an official candidate for EU membership, is Kyivʼs partner in the accession process and cannot move forward as long as the bloc remains in a "dead end".
Under Kosty’s proposal, so-called negotiation clusters — key legal steps on the path to membership — could be opened with the approval of a qualified majority of EU countries, rather than by unanimous consent. Closing a cluster would still require the support of all countries, but the lower standard for starting negotiations would allow Ukraine and Moldova to begin the reforms needed to demonstrate progress.
Diplomats added that Costa directly lobbied EU leaders during a recent “capital tour” where he met with several European leaders, as well as during bilateral talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“Enlargement is a key priority for the European Council President… He sees it as the most important geopolitical investment the EU can make. That is why he sees it as important to continue discussing ways to ensure that Ukraine’s reform efforts are translated into concrete steps,” one official said.
Today, September 29, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos will visit Ukraine as the country completes the process of vetting legislation necessary to advance its candidacy.
“All clusters were checked in record time. Ukraine has completed the task. Ukraine is ready for the next step. Now it is the turn of member states to give the green light… Neither Ukraine nor Europe can afford to slow down the pace of reforms in Ukraine. Now is the time to accelerate,” Kos said in a comment to Politico.
Lithuanian media outlet LRT reported on August 26 that Lithuania had sent a letter to the European Union countries, proposing that at an informal ministerial meeting in Copenhagen on September 1-2, negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova begin without the consent of Hungary, which is blocking Ukraineʼs entry into the EU.
The European Union has 27 countries in total, and if all but Hungary agree to Lithuaniaʼs proposal, negotiations on Ukraineʼs entry into the bloc will proceed technically, and they can be formally consolidated later, when Budapest changes its position or government.
Hungaryʼs position on Ukraineʼs membership in the EU
Hungary has been blocking Kyiv’s efforts to join the EU. For example, in April 2025, the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán urged Hungarians to vote against Ukraine’s EU membership in a national poll. The results of that vote were released on June 26, with Hungarian authorities claiming that 95% of Hungarians were against Ukraine’s EU membership.
Earlier, opposition Hungarian politician Peter Magyar criticized the “national consultations” organized by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s team and called them a failure.
Magyar said that at most 600 000 Hungarians took part in the survey, the lowest figure in the history of national consultations. And “tens of billions of forints” were spent on it.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reacted to the Hungarian national consultations on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU and stated that "the real goal of this anti-Ukrainian hysteria is to shift the attention of Hungarian society from the failures of the governmentʼs socio-economic policy to an imaginary external enemy."
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski admitted that due to the Hungarian veto during his countryʼs presidency of the EU, it was not possible to open a single negotiation chapter with Ukraine.
The media reported that US President Donald Trump, at the request of European leaders, called Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and asked him not to block Ukraineʼs entry into the EU. The next day, the Hungarian Prime Minister wrote that he had heard the request for EU membership, but did not plan to back down.
Author: Yulia Zavadska
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