Hungary has blocked Ukraine’s EU accession process for a third time, with the government saying it will only lift its objection if Kyiv makes progress on the rights of the country’s Hungarian minority.
The latest dispute emerged at the European Council’s Working Party on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession (COELA), which held its first meeting after the summer recess on Tuesday, 1 September.
According to Ukrainska Pravda citing European Pravda’s sources in Brussels, Hungary refused to approve the screening results for Ukraine’s second and third negotiating clusters. Without unanimous support from all 27 EU member states, the Council cannot move forward with formally opening the clusters.
Budapest links its position to minority rights
The Hungarian government has said that it will not support further progress in Ukraine’s accession talks until Kyiv takes what Budapest considers necessary steps to fulfil its commitments concerning national minority rights.
The issue is particularly sensitive because Ukraine is home to a sizeable ethnic Hungarian community in the Transcarpathia region, near Hungary’s eastern border.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has previously taken a somewhat different approach to Ukraine from his predecessor, Viktor Orbán. In June, Magyar and Ukraine reached what the Hungarian leader described as a “historic agreement” aimed at guaranteeing the educational, cultural, linguistic and political rights of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia.
Despite that agreement, Budapest has maintained objections to several stages of Ukraine’s EU accession process.
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What are the two clusters Hungary is blocking?
The latest Hungarian objection concerns Cluster 2, covering the EU internal market, and Cluster 3, which deals with competitiveness and inclusive growth. Hungary had previously blocked technical preparations for Ukraine’s Clusters 2–6. It subsequently lifted its objection to Cluster 6, which covers foreign and security policy, trade policy and relations with third countries.
In July, Hungary also supported advancing Cluster 3 for Moldova. However, most EU member states, led by Ireland, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, opposed separating Moldova’s and Ukraine’s accession tracks. As a result, neither country made progress on the matter at the time.
The next COELA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 2 September, although Ukraine and Moldova are reportedly not on the agenda, Kyiv Post writes.
Ukraine’s accession talks remain complicated
Ukraine formally began its EU accession negotiations in 2024, but opening individual negotiating clusters requires the unanimous agreement of the bloc’s member states. That gives Hungary significant leverage over the process.
The latest blockage comes after EU governments formally opened the first negotiating cluster — “Fundamentals” — for Ukraine and Moldova on 15 June.
Under the previous government, Viktor Orbán repeatedly opposed Ukraine’s EU membership and used concerns over the rights of the Hungarian minority as one of the reasons for his position. His government had also held up the opening of the first cluster for years.
The change in Budapest’s approach under Magyar has therefore been notable, although it has not removed Hungary’s objections to Ukraine’s accession process.
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Budapest says it does not want all clusters opened at once
Magyar has previously argued that Ukraine’s accession negotiations should proceed gradually rather than seeing all six clusters opened simultaneously.
“There are six clusters in total, and we don’t think opening them all at once is a good idea,” he said in June, arguing that the process should also take into account the Western Balkan countries that have spent years working towards EU membership.
For Kyiv, however, every delay is significant as it seeks to advance through the lengthy accession process and bring the country closer to EU membership.
