Politico: Hungary will not oppose Ukraine's accession to the EU

Hungary has made it clear that it will abandon years of resistance to Ukraine's bid to join the European Union (EU). This was reported by the Politico newspaper on June 2, citing sources. According to the newspaper, the lifting of the veto will allow Ukraine and Moldova to begin official negotiations on membership in the association in the coming days. All the details are in the Izvestia article.

Information from the Politico newspaper

According to the newspaper, the new Hungarian leadership has informally confirmed its readiness to lift its veto on negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. This decision became possible after a meeting of Ukrainian and Hungarian experts on the rights of the Hungarian minority living in Ukraine. Thus, during the meeting, the Ukrainian side provided assurances on most of Budapest's 11 demands concerning the restoration of the rights of Hungarians in Transcarpathia. It is clarified that the discussion of the issue intensified after negotiations between Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar and European officials on unblocking €16.4 billion from frozen EU funds for Budapest.

Next steps

A final decision on the start of negotiations will be made in the near future. The EU ambassadors are expected to agree on their position on the opening of the first cluster of accession negotiations between Ukraine and Moldova by the end of this week. Next, an intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg on June 15 may officially open the process. Ukraine and Moldova received the status of candidates for EU membership in June 2022.

Disagreements between Ukraine and the EU

The Financial Times newspaper noted on May 1 that tension between the European Union and Ukraine is growing amid Kiev's demands to speed up the process of joining the union. According to the source, at the European Council summit in Cyprus, the Ukrainian delegation was made clear that the accession process could not be accelerated politically. Another source told the publication that the Ukrainian side often uses the phrase "you owe us."