Hungary has blocked further progress in Ukraine’s European Union accession talks until Kyiv passes laws on minority rights. Budapest has made legislation for ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia a condition for moving through Brussels’ negotiating process. Ukraine is preparing a bill on minority education rights, and lawmakers expect a parliamentary vote in October.
The deal now taking shape puts decisions about language, culture and education inside a larger state-to-state bargain. Budapest controls whether more negotiating clusters can open, while Kyiv’s parliament is expected to pass legislation under an 11-point plan. The people whose rights are at stake are the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia. The governments are doing the bargaining.
A veto with conditions
The dispute follows years of strained relations under Viktor Orbán, whose government repeatedly clashed with Kyiv and blocked Ukraine’s progress toward EU membership. Péter Magyar, Orbán’s successor, has sought to repair relations since taking office in May. In June, Hungary and Ukraine agreed on an 11-point plan to strengthen minority rights. Hungary then allowed two negotiating clusters to open in Ukraine’s accession talks, but Budapest has insisted that the Verkhovna Rada pass the required legislation.
The laws are due by the end of the year. That deadline ties minority rights to a process where one government can hold up another country’s accession talks—and where a promise to legislate becomes a test of whether the political machinery can deliver.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said on social media: “Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Vsevolod Chsentsov personally informed me that a bill on the educational rights of national minorities will be submitted to the Ukrainian parliament. We welcome this step.” She added: “Hungary remains interested in the dialogue and in tangible results in the everyday life of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia.”
The parliament as the next gate
The latest developments followed another dispute between the governments two weeks earlier. Magyar and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha clashed over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s C8 regional development initiative. Sybiha accused Magyar of following in Orbán’s footsteps after Magyar said Hungary had been included against its will. A bill covering language and cultural rights is due to go before the Rada later in October. Kyiv hasn’t officially commented on the latest developments.
Ukrainian outlet LIGA.net reported that experts from both countries held intensive talks this week and agreed which parts of the 11-point plan Kyiv could deliver. Dániel Hegedűs, deputy director of the Institut für Europäische Politik, said the move could reverse recent negative trends in bilateral relations, but warned the legislation could encounter obstacles in the Rada.
“Given the absence of stable majorities in the Verkhovna Rada, passing the legislation in October is an ambitious goal and a real test of whether the Ukrainian administration can regain political control over issues of strategic importance to the country's EU integration,” he told Euronews. The parliament has no stable majority, and now it faces a vote Hungary has linked to the next step in accession talks.
What the bargain may unlock
Magyar and Zelenskyy had previously planned to meet, but Magyar made the talks conditional on progress over minority rights. Hungarian public opinion is another complication: conservative voters remain wary of closer ties with Kyiv after years of hostility towards Ukraine under Orbán. Defending ethnic Hungarians abroad is popular among conservatives and could give Magyar room to reach a deal.
If Ukraine passes the minority package, Hungary could lift its veto on opening more chapters in Kyiv’s EU accession talks. Hegedűs said: “It remains to be seen whether passage of the law will secure Hungary's support for opening all negotiation clusters or only for some of them.” He added: “In the most positive scenario, passage of the minority law and Hungarian support for opening all negotiation clusters could mark a new era in relations between the two countries.”
Approval in Ukraine, he said, “would make Budapest's continuation of its blockade harder to sustain and significantly more costly politically at the European level.” The bill hasn’t passed yet. And even if it does, Hungary’s support for all negotiating clusters remains an open question. Hungary has allowed two negotiating clusters to open.