Hungary lifts veto on Ukraine’s EU negotiation framework after securing minority rights demands
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has disclosed that the country agreed to lift its veto on the EU negotiation framework for Ukraine and Moldova’s membership because all Hungarian conditions have been included in the negotiation document for Kyiv. In a Facebook post, he emphasized that Budapest insists on the restoration of the rights of national minorities in Ukraine.
According to Szijjártó, some EU member states did not even want to hear about Hungary’s conditions. However, Hungarian demands related to the preservation of national identity, use, and education in the native language were included in the negotiation framework after intense discussions.
So now we also have a document from Brussels stating that Ukraine must restore the rights taken from the Transcarpathian Hungarians in recent years, Hungary's Foreign Minister added.
On 14 June, the ambassadors of the EU member states agreed on the negotiation frameworks for Ukraine and Moldova’s accession to the European Union. The official negotiations are set to begin at the intergovernmental conference on 25 June.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, stated that Ukraine and Hungary had agreed on almost all issues related to national minorities. She added that there were no steps Kyiv hadn’t taken regarding any of the issues raised by Budapest.