Hungary removes fast-track Ukraine EU membership language from summit declaration
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar (photo: Getty Images)
Hungary succeeded in removing language on Ukraine's accelerated accession to the bloc from the European Union summit declaration, a move influenced by Prime Minister Péter Magyar himself, according to Euronews.
As Magyar himself said, at the last moment, he removed the provision on Ukraine's accelerated accession from the European Union declaration, something that was supposedly not easy for him to do.
"Regarding Ukraine's EU accession process, at my initiative, a clause referring to accelerating accession was removed from the text at the very last moment. It wasn't easy. For the first time in a year and a half, there can be a closing declaration accepted by all member states," he wrote.
In addition, it is known that Budapest has also expressed reservations about opening the next negotiation clusters on Ukraine's accession to the European Union. Other member states are supposedly taking the same position.
"We have reservations about opening all the other negotiating chapters after the first cluster has been opened. And we are not alone in this — there are other member states that say the same thing. We stand for a merit-based, performance-based accession process," Euronews quoted the Hungarian prime minister as saying.
According to an unnamed diplomat who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, Magyar and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a brief one-on-one conversation in Brussels, where the meeting was taking place.
Zelenskyy expressed optimism that Hungary would help open the remaining clusters for European Union accession talks "sooner than you think."
European Union Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova stated that a realistic date for Ukraine's accession to the European Union is 2030.
As is known, on June 15, Ukraine opened the first negotiation cluster, Fundamentals, after a two-year pause.
This was preceded by an agreement between Kyiv and Budapest regarding the rights of the Hungarian minority, which became a condition for lifting Hungary's veto.
