Hungary Is Blocking Negotiations on Ukraine’s EU Accession — Media Reports
18 July 09:15
Hungary has refused to begin the process of opening the second and third negotiation clusters for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union; these clusters concern the internal market, as well as competitiveness and inclusive growth. According to the publication “European Truth,” citing sources, representatives from Budapest made this decision at a meeting of the EU Council’s Working Group on Enlargement (COELA) on Friday, July 17, as reported by "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to media reports, meeting participants planned to approve a request to Ukraine and Moldova asking them to provide the EU with their negotiating positions on both clusters.
“But Hungary gave the green light only to sending a letter to Moldova regarding Cluster No. 3,” one of the sources said.
At the same time, it is noted that a number of other EU member states opposed this separation of Ukraine and Moldova in the negotiations and did not support the Hungarian proposal. As a result, it was decided to revisit this issue at the next meeting on July 22. This discussion will be COELA’s last before the summer recess, which will last until September 1.
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Earlier this summer, Ukraine and the EU opened two negotiation clusters
On June 15, the foreign ministers of the European Union officially opened the first negotiation cluster, titled “Fundamentals,” regarding Ukraine’s and Moldova’s accession to the EU. The “External Relations” cluster, number six for both countries, was opened on July 14.
Although negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU formally began back in June 2024 in Luxembourg, the opening of the negotiation clusters marks the transition to substantive negotiations on specific areas of EU legislation. Until June 2026, this stage remained blocked due to Hungary’s position.
Hungary had already blocked progress in Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations
In late June, Hungary also became the only EU country to oppose sending a letter to the European Council and the European Commission on behalf of all 27 member states in support of Ukraine’s and Moldova’s accession.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar explained this position by stating that the country’s government “does not consider it a good idea” to open all six negotiation clusters at once.
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