EU accession talks remain stalled by Hungarian veto
Hungary has again blocked progress in the EU accession talks of Ukraine and Moldova. Orbán may have gone, but the Hungarian veto on decisions linked to Ukraine’s European integration remains in place.
Budapest blocked approval of the screening results for clusters 2 and 3 in the accession negotiations with the European Union for Ukraine and Moldova. Hungary has no objections to Moldova, but its claims against Ukraine are longstanding and have not disappeared.
Orbán had been in conflict for years with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Petro Poroshenko, defending the language rights of ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine.
Péter Magyar secured a deal, but Kyiv has not delivered
The pro-European Péter Magyar, who replaced Orbán, even managed to secure some progress. In early June, Ukraineagreed to restore the system of schools for national minorities and expand the use of the Hungarian language in education, including in school administration, final examinations and university entrance exams.
The agreement also provided for wider use of the Hungarian language and national symbols in communities where ethnic Hungarians make up at least 10% of the population. In return, Magyar agreed to support the opening of the first cluster in Ukraine’s EU accession talks.
Time passed, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed no intention of fulfilling the commitments he had made and appears to have forgotten them altogether. Schools opened, but no changes were made to the discriminatory rules, while the aggressive language policy of the Ukrainian authorities continues to tighten. That is why Kyiv has to be brought back to reality. Whether it will listen is another matter.
Moldova tied to an unreliable negotiating partner
This is already Budapest’s third veto. Approval of the document had previously been blocked at meetings on 22 July and 1 September. A fourth attempt will be made at one of the next meetings.
There is little chance that it will succeed. Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to rely in his politics on the most radical nationalists, who are intolerant of any national minorities, whether Russian, Romanian or Moldovan.
Unfortunately for Maia Sandu and other supporters of European integration, all these problems in Ukraine directly affect Moldova as well. The country has simply had the misfortune of tying its negotiations with the European Union to a partner that cannot be relied upon to keep agreements.
