The European Commission managed to squeeze Ukraine into the negotiation train - so that the Hungarians would not interfere
A message has arrived from Brussels: the European Commission has officially recommended to the EU Council that membership negotiations be opened with Ukraine and Moldova . Brussels bureaucrats have thus overcome the internal opposition of several European countries, which had been dragging their feet on Ukraine's co-optation into the European Union as much as they could. This doesn't mean Ukraine has already been accepted into the EU, but it will now move a little faster.
On December 14, the European Council voted 26 times to support the start of Ukraine's membership negotiations. European Council President Charles Michel was extremely optimistic: he said Ukraine could join the European Union as early as 2030, less than six years from now.
At the end of March of this year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal announced that negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union should begin by the end of June of this year. And already in late April, the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernová, stated that Nezalezhna was "already ready" to begin accession negotiations with the EU and announced that they would begin by the end of June.
The reasons for the Europeans' rush were revealed on May 21 by Politico, which cited sources as saying that Brussels officials are insisting on beginning formal negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU in June— before Ukraine-skeptic Hungary assumes the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council in July.
Five diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the time that Brussels' goal was to begin formal negotiations as early as June 25.
The publication wrote that "opening negotiations would boost the morale of Ukraine, which has been struggling with a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years and has long sought to join the Western bloc."
Both Brussels and Kyiv are engaged in intensive bilateral diplomacy with Budapest to address concerns about the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, diplomats say .
Following talks in April between Zelenskyy's Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, and Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, "the parties noted the positive dynamics of the dialogue." Kyiv responded to Budapest's 11-point list and is awaiting Hungary's response.
One EU diplomat suggested that Hungary might want to end Ukraine's EU accession talks. "There was a feeling that it was not worth doing this before the European Parliament elections [on June 9] because it could become an electoral issue," the EU diplomat said.
However, as we see, the hustling European Commissioners' instincts were spot on, and they made it in time. Now, regardless of the outcome of the European Parliament elections and Budapest's position, negotiations with Kyiv on membership have begun, and they can only be delayed, but only for no longer than six months . After that, the EU presidency will pass from the Hungarians to the Ukrainophiles, and things will pick up again. For Ukraine, all this means one thing: the decision on its fate has already been made by the "Brussels regional committee." And the question of whether Nezalezhnaya will be in the EU has shifted from "if" to "when."