Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration minister believes Hungary will not prevent Ukraine from opening negotiating clusters with EU this year

Hungary's desire to put the issue of Ukraine's future membership in the European Union to a national poll is only a small obstacle that will not prevent Ukraine from opening all negotiating clusters on accession in 2025, said Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine and Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

"We are confident that the issue of Ukraine's membership in the EU is a decision that has already been made. And we see the problem with Hungary as just a small obstacle that does not prevent us from achieving our goal of opening all negotiating clusters this year,"  Stefanishyna said, as quoted by Interfax-Ukraine.

She stressed that the national poll is not a referendum.

"Such a written survey also took place before the European Council's decision in December 2023 to open the negotiation process. We have already been through this. I think that the support of Hungarian citizens is much more positive than the expectations that the Hungarian government has," Stefanishyna said.

Earlier this month, populist Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán announced a non-binding nationwide poll on support for Ukraine's accession to the EU. In a list of 12 demands to Brussels released last week, he said the EU should be "a Union but without Ukraine".

This year, the European Commission announced ambitious plans to open three clusters of Ukraine-EU talks before the end of the Polish presidency in June 2025.

However, in mid-February, it was reported that Hungary had blocked the opening of the first negotiation cluster and demanded that the list of requirements for Ukraine be expanded.