Hungary Blocks Again: Is Ukraine's EU Accession at Risk?

Ukraine's European Unionaccession negotiations have encountered new resistance. Hungary unexpectedly refused to support the process of opening the second and third clusters of negotiations. This was reported by the Ukrainian publication 'European Pravda', citing its sources within the European Union.

Zamin.uz presents the disputes that occurred at the European Union Council working group meeting and the reasons behind Budapest's decision.

Ukraine's EU Accession Negotiations: The Fate of the Clusters

It is reported that this sharp decision was made on July 17 at a meeting of the Council of the European Union's Working Party on Enlargement (COELA). The areas for negotiation and their current status are reflected in the table below:

Disagreement at the meeting: Attempt to separate Ukraine and Moldova

In fact, working group members planned to send a letter requesting Ukraine and Moldova to submit their formal negotiating positions on these two clusters. However, Hungary unexpectedly opposed Ukraine, supporting the request only for Moldova regarding the third cluster.

According to the publication's sources, several other EU member states firmly rejected the proposal to consider Ukraine and Moldova separately in the negotiation process, i.e., to decouple them. As a result, no final decision was reached on this issue.

This topic will be re-discussed at the next COELA meeting on July 22. This meeting is the last one before the EU's summer break, after which the working group's activities will be suspended until September 1.

How is Hungary explaining its position?

Although the process of Ukraine's EU accession officially began in Luxembourg in June 2024, practical negotiations had been stalled until June 2026 due to Hungary's opposition. At the end of June, Hungary was the only country that blocked the sending of a joint statement supporting accession to the European Council and the European Commission.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar provided the following explanation for the country's firm position:

'Opening all six negotiation clusters for Ukraine at once is not the right decision. Such a step could send the wrong political signal to Western Balkan countries like Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, which have been working toward EU membership for many years.'

Time will tell whether Kyiv's next practical steps toward the EU will continue in the autumn or if a solution will be found at the final meeting before the summer break.