How is Ukraine's EU membership bid progressing?
Ukraine met Hungary's long-standing demand on minority schools this month, and two more negotiating clusters opened within a day. A week later, Hungary stopped the step towards the last two and gave no reason. The bid is moving, but one member state can still hold it up.
THE SHORT ANSWER
It is moving forward, but Hungary has stalled it again. Ukraine's parliament passed a minority education law on 12 October, and the EU opened two more negotiating clusters on 13 October, leaving two. On 20 October, Hungary refused to approve the screening results for those last two, which cover agriculture, transport and the environment. It gave no explanation to the other 26 states. Diplomats expect the block to be temporary, and EU and national officials predict the clusters will open in December.
What happened
On 12 October, Ukraine's parliament passed a law widening education rights for national minorities. It won 266 votes, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed it the same day. Schools where more than half of pupils study in a minority language can be given special status, and their head or deputy head must speak that language. The extra rights cover official EU languages and the languages of Ukraine's indigenous peoples, but not Russian. Ukraine's education ministry calculates that 149 schools, about 1.2% of the total, can apply for the status.
Hungary's foreign minister, Anita Orban, welcomed the vote as the result of "months of joint work and constructive dialogue". Prime Minister Peter Magyar said it would make it easier for Hungarian children in Zakarpattia to use their mother tongue. Ukrainian officials say the law mostly formalises existing rights. On 13 October, at a meeting in Luxembourg, the EU opened two more negotiating clusters with Ukraine and Moldova, which advance together.
On 20 October, technical experts from the 27 member states met in the Council of the EU's working party on enlargement in Brussels. Hungary refused to approve the screening results for clusters 4 and 5, the two still closed. The other 26 states asked Hungary to explain. Diplomats told the Kyiv Independent that Hungary apparently said only that its position was unchanged. Its permanent representation to the EU did not comment before publication.
Why it matters
Every current member state must agree to any enlargement, so one government can hold up a candidate that the other 26 support. Ukraine's bid has depended on Budapest's consent for years. This month showed both how a demand can be met and how quickly a new obstacle can appear. The block now stands between Ukraine and the opening of all six clusters, and the reports so far do not say what Hungary objects to this time.
- For Ukraine, Kyiv did what Hungary asked on minority schools, yet the two clusters covering agriculture, transport, energy and the environment remain closed.
- For Moldova, Its talks run in step with Ukraine's until all six clusters are unlocked, so the block holds up both countries.
- For ethnic Hungarians in Zakarpattia, The law gives them more room to study in Hungarian, though Ukrainian officials say it changes little in practice.
- For Hungary's government, Diplomats say the block is meant to avoid an opposition attack that it is "soft" on Ukraine, but it leaves Budapest isolated from the other 26 states.
The background: a border region and a language dispute
A border region that changed hands
Zakarpattia, also called Transcarpathia, is Ukraine's westernmost region. It was part of Hungary from the end of the 9th century until 1918. After Austria-Hungary broke up at the end of World War I, it was attached to the new state of Czechoslovakia, and the Treaty of Trianon confirmed this in 1920. Hungary regained parts of it in 1938 and occupied all of it in March 1939.
The region stayed under Hungarian control until the end of World War II in Europe. In June 1945, Czechoslovakia's president, Edvard Benes, signed a treaty ceding it to the Soviet Union, and it became a region of Soviet Ukraine. It joined independent Ukraine in 1991.
Independence and a minority treaty
In December 1991, Hungary and Ukraine signed a state treaty. It recognised that ethnic Hungarians had collective as well as individual rights, including education at all levels in their mother tongue. Estimates of the minority's size differ. The 2001 Ukrainian census counted 156,600 Hungarians, mostly in Zakarpattia, while the Kyiv Independent this month put the number in the region at roughly 80,000.
The 2017 education law
In September 2017, President Petro Poroshenko signed an education law that made Ukrainian the required language of study in state schools from the fifth grade. It reversed a 2012 law that let regions where a minority exceeded ten percent use minority languages in schools. The law was mainly meant to discourage Russian in public education. It also affected Hungarian-language schools in Zakarpattia, and relations between Kyiv and Budapest deteriorated.
In March 2018, Hungary's then foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, restated that Hungary would block further Ukrainian integration into NATO or the EU until Hungarian concerns were addressed. In January 2020, Ukraine amended the law. Hungarian minority groups remained unhappy and demanded that the whole 2017 law be abolished.
From application to negotiations
Ukraine applied for EU membership on 28 February 2022, four days after Russia invaded. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, recommended opening talks on 8 November 2023. That December, Ukraine revised its minority legislation to address recommendations from the Council of Europe's Venice Commission. The European Council, which brings together national leaders, decided on 14 December 2023 to open negotiations. They began on 25 June 2024, alongside Moldova's.
Ukraine announced in November 2024 that it had completed screening of the first cluster. In July 2025, Hungary imposed an entry ban on Ukrainian military officials during a dispute over the death of a dual Hungarian-Ukrainian citizen after his mobilisation.
A new government in Budapest
Viktor Orban, Hungary's Kremlin-friendly former prime minister, spent years blocking Ukraine's accession talks. In April 2026, Peter Magyar's Tisza party won the election, which Implica reported changed Budapest's posture. On 18 September, Zelenskyy announced the Carpathian Eight, a regional cooperation format that includes Hungary and covers trade, transport, energy and security.
This month
Kyiv passed the minority schools law on 12 October, and two more clusters opened the next day. Ukraine's deputy prime minister for European integration, Vsevolod Chentsov, told European Pravda that Kyiv had managed to turn the page on the period when Hungary created challenges for its EU path. Then came the 20 October block.
GOOD TO KNOW
Hungary was the first country to recognise Ukraine's independence in 1991. Decades later, the schooling of its ethnic Hungarian minority held up Kyiv's EU bid.
Why can one country stop Ukraine's talks?
According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state, as well as the European Parliament, must agree on any enlargement. A candidate must also meet the Copenhagen criteria: a democratic government that recognises the rule of law and relevant freedoms and institutions. Because all 27 governments must agree, one government's objection in a working party can stall a step even when the other 26 want to proceed.
What are negotiating clusters?
Clusters are to-do lists of reforms that bring a country's laws into line with EU law. There are six, and Ukraine and Moldova move through them together. Screening, an earlier step, checks the candidate against each cluster. Approving its results is the procedural step that starts the unlocking of a cluster.
Cluster 4 covers the green agenda, transport, energy, trans-European networks, the environment and climate change. Cluster 5 covers agriculture, fisheries, veterinary and phytosanitary (plant health) policy, and financial and budgetary provisions.
Timeline: 1918 to today
ROOTS OF THE DISPUTE
Zakarpattia is detached from Hungary and attached to Czechoslovakia, as the Treaty of Trianon confirms in 1920.
Czechoslovakia cedes the region to the Soviet Union, and it becomes part of Soviet Ukraine.
Hungary and Ukraine sign a state treaty recognising the Hungarian minority's rights, including mother-tongue education.
THE EDUCATION LAW DISPUTE
Ukraine's education law makes Ukrainian the required language of study from the fifth grade, and relations with Hungary deteriorate.
Ukraine amends the law, but Hungarian minority groups still demand that the 2017 law be abolished.
CANDIDACY AND TALKS
Ukraine applies for EU membership, four days after Russia's invasion.
The European Council decides to open accession negotiations, after Ukraine revised its minority legislation that month.
Accession negotiations begin with Ukraine, at the same time as with Moldova.
Hungary bans Ukrainian military officials from entering amid a diplomatic dispute over a dual citizen's death.
A NEW GOVERNMENT IN BUDAPEST
Peter Magyar's Tisza party wins Hungary's election, changing Budapest's posture towards Kyiv.
Zelenskyy announces the Carpathian Eight, a regional cooperation format that includes Hungary.
OCTOBER 2026
Ukraine's parliament passes the minority education law with 266 votes, and Zelenskyy signs it the same day.
The EU opens two more negotiating clusters with Ukraine and Moldova in Luxembourg.
Hungary refuses to approve screening results for clusters 4 and 5 and gives no reason.
What to watch next
- Working party meetings. The item will return at every enlargement working party meeting in Brussels until the deadlock breaks.
- December. Senior EU and national officials predict the final two clusters will formally open then.
- Hungary's reasons. Budapest has given none, and the reports so far do not say what it objects to.
Sources
- The Kyiv Independent20 OCT 2026
- Ziarul BURSA20 OCT 2026
- Interfax-Ukraine20 OCT 2026
- Вечерняя Москва20 OCT 2026
- Європейська правда20 OCT 2026
- The Straits Times12 OCT 2026
- The Kyiv Independent12 OCT 2026
- Интерфакс-Украина12 OCT 2026
How this article was made: Implica's editorial system wrote it from the news reports above, with the background drawn from Wikipedia: Ukraine–European Union relations, Hungarians in Ukraine, Hungary–Ukraine relations, Potential accession of Ukraine to the European Union.