Kyiv, Budapest to begin regular consultations on Ukraine’s EU accession talks

Stefanishyna said both sides will work together until all issues that prompted Hungary’s concerns have been resolved.

“We agreed that starting May 12, the teams that were in Budapest today from both the Ukrainian and Hungarian sides will work on a regular basis until we finalize the full list of tasks under those 11 recommendations made by the Hungarian side,” said Stefanishyna.

She added that the Ukrainian delegation arrived with concrete proposals to resolve the range of problematic issues and that a counterproposal from Budapest is expected soon.

“We expect to work on the Hungarian counterproposals through this week and hope to have interim results by May 12...; I hope that this dialogue will pave the way for unblocking the negotiation process,” the minister stated.

Stefanishyna noted that no “radical or negative” statements were made by Hungary during the meeting.

On April 22, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban voted against Ukraine’s EU membership in a national referendum his government called on the issue. Hungary is also blocking the opening of accession negotiation clusters for Ukraine beginning in 2025, arguing that doing so would place an undue “burden” on both the EU and Hungary.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said Hungary is the only country opposed to Ukraine’s EU membership.