Hungarian Foreign Ministry considers Ukraine's EU accession by 2030 unrealistic

Hungary does not consider Ukraine's accession to the European Union by 2030 to be realistic.

Source: Foreign Minister Anita Orbán during a visit to Vilnius, as reported by European Pravda, citing LRT

Details: Orbán was answering a question about whether Ukraine would be able to join the EU by 2030. The minister stated that they do not consider this realistic, adding that Hungary strongly supports a merit-based process and that she believes they are in agreement with Lithuania on this issue.

She noted that all candidate countries must meet the same requirements, ruling out any accelerated accession process for Ukraine. Orbán stressed that every country must go through the same procedure that Hungary did and that they do not support any accelerated accession.

Meanwhile, Orbán noted that Ukraine has made significant progress in the accession process, with four out of six negotiating clusters already opened. She attributed part of this progress to the improvement of relations between Hungary and Ukraine, as well as the agreement on the protection of the rights of the Hungarian national minority in Zakarpattia.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys expressed greater optimism regarding the prospects of Ukraine joining the EU by 2030, noting that a target date should be set. Budrys pointed out that Lithuania is more optimistic about the timeframe and believes that a target date can and should be established.

He noted that accession by 2030 is theoretically possible if Ukraine implements the necessary reforms quickly enough and the EU completes the required stages of this process on time. Budrys added that they believe it is still possible to complete all processes by 2030, provided the European Union manages to act quickly enough and Ukraine carries out the reforms.

Background:

• The European Commission recently stated that if Ukraine accelerates the pace of reforms, it could complete accession negotiations by the end of 2028.
• As reported by European Pravda, the EU has published its 2026 Enlargement Package, with Ukraine among the leaders of European integration.
• The European Commission may present the EU Council with an Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR) on the rule of law regarding Ukraine in the first half of 2027 if Kyiv accelerates its pace of reforms.

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