Hungary might veto talks on Ukraine's EU accession and demand candidate status for Georgia

Hungary is critical of Kyiv for not doing enough on minority rights and might veto the beginning of talks on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union – and will demand candidate status for Georgia as a condition for Ukraine opening accession negotiations.

Source: Rikard Jozwiak for Radio Liberty

Details: Jozwiak wrote that many "EU insiders believe that Ukraine will get the green light to start accession talks later this year, but Hungary might still veto this."

"In the discussion in Brussels following the presentation of the report [the European Commission’s report on Ukraine’s progress in policy reforms – ed.], Hungary was very critical of Kyiv for not doing enough on minority rights," Jozwiak wrote.

One scenario is that Hungary will only sign off on Ukraine opening accession negotiations if other EU countries agree to approve Georgia's candidate status at the same time. Georgia was denied the candidate status last year because some of the reforms in the country have been rolled back.

"In recent years, the Georgian government has cultivated a much closer relationship with Budapest," Jozwiak explained, predicting that reaching a consensus on Georgia’s candidacy "will be tricky, to say the least", especially given the fact that Georgia has failed to comply with 9 out of 12 European Commission recommendations.

Previously: The European Commission believes that Ukraine has fully implemented two out of seven conditions necessary to open accession negotiations, and progress has been made on the remaining conditions.

European Pravda reported that the European Commission’s report on Ukraine was overall positive and intends to help Kyiv resolve the issues it continues to face, which Brussels does not believe to be insurmountable.

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