Hungary's Magyar points to EU disagreements on Ukraine’s EU bid
Photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar (Getty Images)
The Hungarian Prime Minister called the agreement with Ukraine on minority rights "historic," but said that EU member states’ positions on the further opening of clusters "differ significantly," according to a statement by Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
Magyar called the agreement with Ukraine on the linguistic, cultural, political, and educational rights of the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia "historic" and confirmed that it allowed Budapest to agree to the opening of the first cluster.
Reservations regarding the remaining clusters
At the same time, the prime minister said that Hungary is "not the only" country that has reservations about the immediate opening of all other clusters.
"Further on there are disagreements: some want to open everything at once, others only certain chapters, while we are saying — we have just opened the first cluster," Magyar explained.
According to him, Budapest supports an accession process "based on merit and results." Magyar warned that double standards — fast-tracking Ukraine while keeping the Western Balkans in a slow process — would be "unfair and not pragmatic."
"You cannot have two different approaches to enlargement," he stressed.
'Devil is in the details'
Magyar acknowledged that reaching compromises among the 27 EU member states is difficult, but added that he will continue working on it. "One thing is a prepared document; another is what is said in the meeting room," he concluded.
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 on the rights of the Hungarian minority, which became a condition for lifting Hungary’s veto.
Under an optimistic scenario, negotiations on all six clusters could be opened by the end of July.
