Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said Wednesday that Hungary and Ukraine have reached an agreement on the rights of Ukraine's ethnic Hungarian minority, a development that could clear the way for the opening of the first cluster of Kyiv's European Union accession negotiations.
The agreement marks a potential breakthrough in a long-running dispute over minority rights that had strained ties between Budapest and Kyiv and complicated Hungary's support for Ukraine's EU ambitions.
Every step of the accession process, which is divided into chapters and clusters of policy issues, requires approval from all EU members.
"We have achieved a breakthrough in our talks with Ukraine about the language, cultural and educational rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority," Magyar said in a Facebook post during an official trip to Paris. Magyar, who ousted Moscow-friendly predecessor Viktor Orban in an April election, said on Tuesday that he was ready to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy next week to open a new chapter in relations if a deal was reached on minority rights.
Warmer relations between Hungary and Ukraine are pivotal for the European Union's backing for Kyiv in Russia's war in Ukraine, with Orban having opposed the flow of billions of euros in aid to Ukraine and its EU membership.
