EU accession: Hungary still does not tell Ukraine its demands for opening EU negotiating clusters

Despite statements by Hungarian officials that they expect Ukraine to take certain steps to advance on its path towards the EU, Budapest has not provided Kyiv with the details.

Source: Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responding to a question from European Pravda correspondent during a press conference at the ministry

Details: Tykhyi explained that Ukraine is trying through official channels to clarify Hungary's position and the reasons why it is blocking the opening of the next clusters.

Quote: "We are negotiating almost daily with our Hungarian partners and with the EU to avoid artificial delays in the negotiation process. Unfortunately, even during closed-door meetings where Hungary did not approve the opening of clusters, its reservations were expressed only in general terms. In other words, we do not even understand why certain obstacles are being raised again."

More details: Tykhyi rejected the suggestion that Ukraine is asking for an accelerated procedure.

Quote: "We do not believe this is some kind of fast-track movement towards the European Union. This is an absolutely merit-based approach."

More details: Heorhii Tykhyi added that Ukraine has information about representatives of Hungary's previous government being involved in creating obstacles to Ukraine's EU path.

Quote: "For 17 months, Viktor Orbán's government blocked the opening of clusters, even though Ukraine had fulfilled all the conditions for this. But even after losing power, Orbán's team continues to disrupt the normalisation of Hungary's relations with Ukraine."

Background:

• It was reported earlier what Hungary is demanding in exchange for opening negotiating clusters for Ukraine, although these demands lacked specifics. It was also reported that Budapest communicated them to the EU rather than to Ukraine.
• On 1 September, Hungary again refused to approve the screening results for clusters 2 and 3 for Ukraine.

Read more: Zelenskyy has to be ambitious with EU, or he'll get no response: an interview with Irish leader

Subscribe on Patreon to back our journalism long-term.