Brussels officials are pushing to begin formal negotiations over Ukraine joining the European Union as early as next month, according to people familiar with the matter, Politico said.
Behind the scenes, diplomats from the EU and from Kyiv are working intensively to try to persuade the Hungarian government to give its approval to opening talks on Ukraine’s accession.
Five diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aim is to kickstart the formal negotiations as soon as June 25.
Opening the talks would bring a morale boost to Ukraine, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion for more than two years and has long aspired to join the Western bloc.
EU leaders told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last December they wanted Ukraine and Moldova to join their club, potentially bringing its membership to 29 countries. But the formal legal procedure to start membership talks has been held up by opposition from Hungary.
According to the diplomats, both Brussels and Kyiv are engaging in intensive bilateral diplomacy with Budapest to address concerns about Hungarian minorities in Ukraine.
One EU diplomat speculated that Hungary may want to get the matter of Ukrainian accession talks out of the way before it takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in July. “There was a sense of not doing this before the [June 9 European Parliament] election because it could become an election issue,” said the EU diplomat, capturing the mood felt among many officials in Brussels.
