Hungary lifted 17-month veto on Ukraine's EU accession talks: what is known
Hungary has agreed to unblock the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union after 17 months of blocking. This opens the way for Kyiv to begin the negotiation process regarding EU membership, reports the Financial Times.
According to the publication, Budapest no longer objects to opening the first negotiation cluster, which is one of the key stages on the path to Ukraine's accession to the European Union. It is expected that the relevant issue may be brought up for consideration during the EU intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg on June 15.
As previously reported by the "Judicial and Legal Newspaper" citing Politico, Ukraine and Moldova may take an important step towards EU membership in the coming days. At that time, diplomatic sources stated that Hungary signaled its readiness to abandon the long-standing blockade of Ukraine's accession negotiations.
Sources noted that Budapest's position began to change after consultations between Ukrainian and Hungarian experts on ensuring the rights of the Hungarian national minority in Ukraine. The acceleration of negotiations also occurred after contacts between Hungarian leadership and EU institutions.
Since Ukraine and Moldova submitted their applications for EU membership simultaneously, unblocking the negotiation process for Kyiv automatically opens the possibility for further progress on Moldova's application as well.
It is expected that EU member states' ambassadors will soon agree on a joint position regarding the opening of the first negotiation cluster for Ukraine and Moldova. Before this, Ukraine must present plans for further reforms and steps in the field of protecting the rights of national minorities.
Opening negotiation clusters requires unanimous support from all 27 EU member states. At the same time, each member country has the right to block the process at any stage of accession negotiations.
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