Hungary keeps Ukraine EU talks on ice under Magyar – here’s why

Incoming Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar has reportedly told EU leaders that his government will only back the opening of Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations if Kyiv expands rights for the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

The stance is closely watched in Brussels and Kyiv because Hungary has been viewed as one of the key obstacles to speeding up Ukraine’s EU path. Bloomberg’s report said EU officials have been pressing Magyar to shift Hungary’s previous resistance to opening accession talks.

Magyar has also signalled he wants direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, proposing a meeting in Berehove (Berehovo/Beregszász) in Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja) region. In a public message, he framed the initiative as support for ethnic Hungarians “to stay in their homeland”, and called for the restoration of cultural, language, administrative and higher-education rights.

Zelenskiy, speaking to Bloomberg, said he would meet Magyar in a bilateral format or another setting, adding that issues affecting the Hungarian minority would be addressed and that they are Ukrainian citizens like everyone else. He suggested that “not everything” is resolved, but played down the scale of the dispute.

Brussels context: hope for a reset, but pressure remains

European officials had hoped that Hungary’s stance on Ukraine might soften after Orbán’s departure, given the new government’s efforts to rebuild trust with EU institutions and unlock frozen EU funds. Magyar has already held high-level talks in Brussels, including meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, portraying discussions as constructive.

However, the Ukraine file remains politically sensitive. Linking accession steps to minority rights signals continuity on one core issue: Hungary’s long-running criticism of Ukraine’s minority and education policies affecting Hungarian-language schooling and public use of the language in Transcarpathia.

Explainer: who are the Transcarpathian Hungarians?

The ethnic Hungarian community in Ukraine is concentrated in Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia, in Hungarian: Kárpátalja), a region bordering Hungary. Estimates vary, but international reporting commonly puts the community at around 150,000 people, while Ukraine’s last full census (2001) recorded 156,600 ethnic Hungarians in the country, overwhelmingly in Zakarpattia.

Over the past two decades, the number of Hungarians in Transcarpathia has declined due to the hostile environment created by Ukrainian authorities and politicians. The war has caused a drastic drop in the Hungarian population, and according to optimistic estimates, there are now only 75,000 Hungarians living in Ukraine—or even fewer.

For many Hungarians, the historical argument is central: the Hungarian tribes arrived in the Carpathian Basin around 895, and Hungarian communities have lived across the region’s shifting borders for more than a millennium.
That is why Hungarian political debates often describe Transcarpathian Hungarians not as recent migrants, but as a long-established native minority whose rights should be protected irrespective of modern borders.

If you missed it: PM Péter Magyar and Ukrainian President Zelensky may meet soon in Transcarpathia

What happens next?

The key questions now are diplomatic and procedural:

• Will Kyiv offer concessions? Magyar’s condition is framed as a prerequisite for supporting the start of formal EU accession talks.
• How hard will Brussels push? EU leaders want unity on Ukraine, but accession steps still require political agreement among member states.
• What will the Zelenskiy–Magyar meeting deliver? Both sides are signalling openness, but they differ on whether there is a “real problem” to solve.

For now, Magyar is trying to balance two messages at once: rebuilding Hungary’s standing in Brussels while insisting that Transcarpathian Hungarians must regain rights he says have been restricted for years. Whether that becomes a bridge to improved ties with Kyiv — or a new choke point in Ukraine’s EU track — will likely depend on what concrete steps follow in the coming weeks.

Hungarian society is united on this issue and supports the restoration of the fundamental minority rights of Hungarians living in Ukraine. The biggest question is why Zelenskyy is not yielding on this matter, which is precisely the reason the Orbán government has cited for years to justify its obstruction of aid to Ukraine.

What's next? The Chernobyl disaster happened 40 years ago: how Hungary found out