Overview
- Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said on Wednesday that Budapest and Kyiv struck a deal to expand linguistic, educational, cultural and political rights for about 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia.
- The Cyprus rotating presidency and EU ambassadors have started preparing to open the first negotiating cluster, which covers fundamentals such as the rule of law, judicial reform and democratic standards.
- The breakthrough removes Budapest’s main formal objection but still requires Ukraine to translate the measures into its domestic law and to include them in its EU accession action plan.
- Final steps — unanimous approval by all 27 EU member states and intergovernmental conferences scheduled for June 15 in Luxembourg — remain necessary before talks formally begin.
- The deal narrows Hungary’s veto power but keeps limits: Budapest opposes fast-tracking Ukraine’s membership and Magyar said Hungary could demand a referendum if Ukraine closed all 33 chapters within 10 to 15 years.