Hungary's PM Magyar announces deal with Ukraine on minority rights, paving way for EU talks

BRUSSELS — Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar late Wednesday announced Budapest had struck a deal with Kyiv that would clear the way for the EU to open accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Magyar said the agreement would expand the “linguistic, educational, cultural and political rights” of roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine’s western Zakarpattia region.

The rights Ukraine’s Hungarian minority has been a longstanding source of tension between Kyiv and Budapest since the former adopted legislation strengthening the role of Ukrainian as the primary language of instruction in schools.

“In three weeks we managed to achieve what [former Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán couldn’t do in 10 years,” Magyar said. Orbán’s government fiercely opposed Ukraine’s EU accession, ostensibly over minority rights for Hungarians living in Ukraine.

Magyar said Kyiv had agreed to translate the negotiated measures into Ukrainian law “in the near future.”

“If this happens,” the prime minister said, Hungary would support opening the first negotiating cluster in Ukraine’s EU accession talks, a key milestone in the country’s membership bid.

But Magyar appeared to hose down fast-tracking EU entry for Kyiv, pointedly saying: “If Ukraine manages to close all 33 [chapters of the EU accession negotiations] within 10 or 15 years, our country will hold a referendum on the issue.”

Kyiv has yet to publicly confirm an agreement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office and the Ukrainian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Magyar’s announcement followed weeks of expert-level talks involving Hungarian and Ukrainian officials, and after POLITICO reported on Tuesday that a deal was imminent.

The breakthrough comes as EU governments on Wednesday moved to formally advance Ukraine and Moldova’s twinned membership bids. Ambassadors meeting in Brussels launched the process for opening the first negotiating cluster in accession talks with both countries.

A spokesperson for the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the EU hailed that move as a “significant milestone” in the two countries’ “European integration path.” The spokesperson said it was a demonstration of the bloc’s commitment to enlargement, which “sends a strong message of unity and determination.”

Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee welcomed the ambassadors’ decision to move forward on the EU accession negotiations, calling the move “a historic milestone.”

McEntee said Ukraine and Moldova had shown commitment to democracy, the rule of law and reform “in extraordinary circumstances.”

The EU’s common position on the cluster is now likely to be formally approved next week, paving the way for separate intergovernmental conferences with Ukraine and Moldova on June 15 in Luxembourg, where accession negotiations could officially move to the next stage.

Opening clusters requires unanimous approval by all 27 EU member countries.

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