Hungary Again Stalls Ukraine's EU Talks

Hungary continues to block further progress in Ukraine's and Moldova's accession negotiations with the European Union. At Friday's meeting of the EU Council's Working Group on Enlargement (COELA) in Brussels, Hungary refused to approve the results of the screening of negotiation clusters two through six, arguing that opening additional chapters is premature, according to the outlet Evropska Pravda.

Without this approval, the European Union cannot send Kyiv or Chisinau a request to submit their negotiating positions, a necessary step before opening individual clusters.

According to sources within the EU, Budapest has reiterated its reservations for the second time this week. It took a similar stance at the COELA meeting on 23 June, when it claimed that its experts needed more time to review the documents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had recently expressed hope that the remaining five negotiation clusters would be opened in the coming weeks. However, according to diplomatic sources, this timeline is becoming increasingly unrealistic.

(mja)