BUDAPEST, April 4. /TASS/. Hungary will not permit the commencement of negotiations between the European Union and Ukraine regarding the latter's accession to the EU until the Ukrainian authorities restore the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrey Sibiga, in Brussels.
Szijjarto noted that EU leaders are eager to expedite Ukraine's integration into the European Union, but he cautioned that this rush could pose significant economic risks for Europe as a whole. "They want to initiate substantive negotiations now, opening the first chapter of the accession talks. This creates a qualitatively new situation and marks the beginning of a completely new stage in the process of Ukraine's accession negotiations," he stated during a meeting with Hungarian journalists in the Belgian capital, which was broadcast by the M1 television channel.
The foreign minister emphasized that, in addition to the substantial economic risks associated with Ukraine's bid for EU membership, there remains the pressing issue of the disfranchised ethnic Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, which has been stripped of its rights - including the right to use their native language in cultural and educational contexts - since 2015. "I made it clear to my counterpart that Hungary’s concerns must be taken into account. We need to restore everything that was in place before 2015. This amounts to 11 specific points that must be fulfilled, and before that happens, the start of any chapter in the accession negotiations is out of the question," he asserted.
Szijjarto mentioned that he and the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry agreed to reconvene next week to discuss the Hungarian 11-point list of demands regarding the rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia. He described his conversation with Sibiga as candid and expressed hope for progress on the matter. The Ukrainian minister was in Brussels for a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.
Additionally, Szijjarto recalled that Hungary planned to hold a referendum on Ukraine's EU accession from mid-April to the end of May to ask its citizens whether they support such a move. Budapest intends to use the results of the referendum as a basis for consultations with Brussels.
Previously, the Hungarian government stated that both Ukraine and the EU are unprepared for Ukraine's accession. In June 2022, EU leaders, following the recommendation of the European Commission, granted Ukraine candidate status for EU membership, and in December 2023, they decided to initiate negotiations on this issue.