On Wednesday 3 June, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced “a comprehensive agreement with Ukraine concerning the expansion of the educational, educational, cultural and political rights of the Hungarian minority, numbering 100,000 people”, paving the way for the lifting of his country’s veto on the opening of the first cluster of chapters in Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations and, by extension, those of Moldova.
Following this announcement and a meeting of EU Member States’ ambassadors (Coreper), the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU announced in the evening that it had initiated the process for the formal opening of Cluster 1 – on the Fundamentals – as part of the accession negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova, “marking an important step towards their European integration”.
The EU’s common position is expected to be formally adopted next week following technical work in the Council, adoption which could allow for the official opening of the first cluster of chapters for each country at two separate intergovernmental conferences on 15 June in Luxembourg.
Ukraine and Moldova officially opened their accession negotiations in June 2024. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)