Hungary has become the sole European Union member state to obstruct a crucial procedural step for the further advancement of Ukraine’s and Moldova’s accession applications.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar / © Associated Press
On Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Brussels, the Hungarian government postponed the approval of a joint European letter to impede the swift opening of new negotiation clusters for Ukraine and Moldova.
Politico reports on Budapest’s latest obstruction of Kyiv’s and Chișinău’s European integration process, citing European diplomats.
Blocking the EU’s Common Position
The accession applications of both countries are politically linked, hence on June 15, European states unanimously approved the opening of the first official chapter for them. Following this, Kyiv anticipated rapid progress, aiming to commence work on all six negotiation clusters by mid-July. However, this optimistic timeline is now under serious threat.
Hungary emerged as the sole country to oppose the dispatch of a letter on behalf of the 27 bloc members, outlining the common stance of European capitals. As this pivotal procedural step requires unanimous approval exclusively, the discussion on further enlargement had to be deferred to the following week.
Péter Magyar’s Consistent Strategy
Budapest’s actions align perfectly with Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s generally cool attitude towards Ukraine’s European integration. Last week, the politician personally succeeded in having the clause on Ukraine’s accelerated accession removed from the final declaration of the European Union summit. According to him, removing this significant phrase was not easy due to resistance from other European leaders, but it secured the agreement of all participants.
At the same time, the head of the Hungarian government publicly expressed significant doubts about the necessity of urgently opening the remaining negotiation clusters with Kyiv. He attributed his skepticism to purely procedural reasons and an unwillingness to send a negative signal to the Western Balkan states, who have been awaiting European membership for years.
“There are six clusters in total, and we do not consider it a good idea to open them all at once – partly because the ink on the first one has not even dried yet,” stated Péter Magyar during a press conference in Brussels.
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