Ukraine and Hungary agree to hold consultations to unblock Ukraine's movement to EU

Ukraine and Hungary have agreed to start regular consultations to unblock negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union following talks in Budapest on 29 April.

As reported by Interfax-Ukraine, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and Minister of Justice, said on the national joint 24/7 newscast  that starting 12 May, "the teams that were present in Budapest today from the Ukrainian and Hungarian sides will work on a regular basis".

The deputy prime minister added that the negotiation teams will work "until we determine the entire list of tasks within the eleven recommendations that are the subject of concern of the Hungarian side".

"We expect to work on the Hungarian side's counter-proposals throughout this week, and we expect to have interim results on 12 May... I hope that this dialogue will have every chance of paving the way for unblocking the negotiation process," Stefanishyna said.

Olha Stefanishyna noted that during the talks in Budapest on Tuesday, the Ukrainian delegation did not hear any radical statements or negative remarks from the Hungarian side.

Hungary has created a number of obstacles on Ukraine's path to EU membership, effectively blocking accession negotiations. Budapest has even organised a consultative poll on Ukraine's accession to the EU. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has even publicly voted against it.

European Pravda sources recently reported that if Hungary continues to block the opening of negotiation clusters for Ukraine’s EU accession, Moldova, which began negotiations at the same time and is also ready to open Cluster 1, Fundamentals, may do so earlier.

The EU has confirmed that it is considering possibly continuing Moldova's accession process by separating it from Ukraine, as Hungary resists negotiations with Kyiv.