Hungary has blocked an important procedural step required to open the next negotiation clusters in Ukraine and Moldova's EU accession talks, Politico reports.
Hungary turned out to be the only country that opposed a joint letter from the European Council and the European Commission. The document set out a coordinated position of the 27 EU member states on further steps of European integration.
Because of Budapest’s veto, the initiative will have to be brought back for renewed discussion next week.
Ukraine had aimed to open all six negotiation clusters by mid-July. However, due to the Hungarian position, it will be significantly harder to meet this timeline.
According to European diplomats, the Hungarian government generally agreed to open the first cluster. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar insisted that references to Kyiv’s membership in the EU "as soon as possible" be removed from official documents.
