EU Opens Accession Talks With Ukraine and Moldova After Hungary Lifts Veto
After two years of Hungarian obstruction, the European Union has finally agreed to open formal accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The deal was reached on June 12 among the ambassadors of all 27 member states. Talks will formally resume in Luxembourg on Monday, June 15.
The breakthrough came when Hungary’s new Prime Minister, Peter Magyar, lifted the veto that his predecessor Viktor Orban had maintained since mid-2024. Magyar, who took office in May 2026, struck a deal with Brussels that included guarantees on minority language rights for ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine. Budapest had argued for years that Kyiv’s education and language laws discriminated against the Hungarian-speaking community in Transcarpathia.
European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a joint statement welcoming the decision. “All member states agreed to open the first accession negotiations cluster with Ukraine and Moldova,” they said. “This is a recognition of the determination, courage and hard work shown by both countries in advancing reforms, even in the face of immense challenges.” They added: “Enlargement is a strategic choice. In a world marked by growing uncertainty, a larger European Union is in our common interest.”
For Ukraine, the decision arrives at a moment of acute vulnerability. Russian forces continue to press along the eastern front. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long argued that the promise of EU membership is not merely an economic ambition but a matter of national survival. Kyiv views accession to the bloc as a structural guarantee against future Russian aggression, complementing the security umbrella that NATO membership would eventually provide, though that prospect remains distant.
Moldova sees the situation in similar terms. Chisinau has governed since 2022 under the constant shadow of Russian destabilization efforts, including energy blackmail, disinformation campaigns, and the presence of Russian troops in the breakaway region of Transnistria. For President Maia Sandu’s government, EU membership represents the surest path to insulating the country from Moscow’s orbit. Moldova applied for membership in March 2022, just days after Ukraine, and received candidate status in June of that year.
The first accession cluster represents the formal beginning of the negotiation process. It covers fundamentals of the accession criteria: rule of law, judicial independence, anti-corruption frameworks, human rights protections, and public administration reform. These are the most demanding chapters in any enlargement round. Subsequent clusters will address areas such as the internal market, agriculture and cohesion policy, environmental standards, and foreign and security policy alignment.
As reported by Reuters and Al Jazeera, the talks that begin next week are the first real test of whether Ukraine and Moldova can translate their reform ambitions into lasting institutional change. Both countries have passed significant legislation in recent years, including judicial overhaul measures, anti-oligarch laws, and media transparency requirements. But implementation remains uneven, and the European Commission will track progress closely before allowing any cluster to be closed.
The EU’s enlargement process is famously slow and exacting. France24 notes that past accession rounds for Central and Eastern European states took the better part of a decade. Turkey’s negotiations, opened in 2005, remain effectively frozen. The European Commission screens candidate laws against the entire body of EU law, known as the acquis communautaire, which spans some 150,000 pages of regulations and directives. Each of the 35 negotiating chapters must be opened and closed unanimously by all member states.
Magyar has already made clear that Hungary will not support a fast-track procedure for Ukraine. Speaking to reporters after the deal was announced, the new prime minister said Budapest’s concerns about the pace of Kyiv’s reforms, particularly on minority protections and anti-corruption, would require careful monitoring. This suggests that while the veto is gone, further Hungarian roadblocks cannot be ruled out. As Euronews reports, Magyar is governing with a fragile coalition and faces domestic pressure from nationalist factions that remain skeptical of Ukrainian integration.
The symbolism of this week’s agreement should not be underestimated. When the European Council granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova in June 2022, few expected the process to advance so far so quickly. War has a way of compressing timelines that peacetime bureaucracy stretches. The formal opening of accession negotiations, however limited in immediate practical effect, signals that the EU is willing to treat enlargement as a strategic priority rather than a technical exercise.
What remains to be seen is whether the bloc’s internal politics can sustain the momentum. Enlargement fatigue is a real force in Western European capitals. The prospect of admitting a large, war-damaged country like Ukraine, with its agricultural sector that would reshape the Common Agricultural Policy and its population that would shift voting weights in the European Parliament, gives pause to leaders in Paris and Berlin. The Netherlands and Denmark have also expressed reservations about moving too quickly.
Still, the war in Ukraine has changed the calculus. The argument that the EU must stabilize its eastern flank rather than leave a security vacuum for Russia to fill has gained traction across the political spectrum. For now, the door is open. Ukraine and Moldova have been invited to walk through it. The pace of the march, however, remains uncertain.