Hungary had no objections to negotiating clusters 3, 4 and 5 being opened for Ukraine's EU accession

Taras Kachka, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, has said Hungary has raised no objections to negotiating clusters 3, 4 and 5 being opened for Ukraine.

Kachka was speaking about the EU General Affairs Council meeting held in Brussels on 17 March, which focused on setting accession conditions, known as benchmarks, for Ukraine for negotiating clusters three, four and five.

"It is very interesting that Hungary's Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka was present in person there on 17 March, so they did not send some expert. And the minister said nothing about these benchmarks, did not say they do not support them or anything else, although he did speak and talk about other things. So we believe Hungary also joined in handing them over to us," Kachka said at a meeting with journalists in Kyiv.

Kachka also said Ukraine has already gained all the practical benefits of the clusters being treated as open, even though the formal opening of the first cluster has not yet taken place because of the Hungarian veto.

"All participants in the process, meaning the European Union member states, the European Commission and all EU institutions, consider the clusters to be open. However, formally, we still have to open the first cluster and then open clusters two to six, and this can be done within a single intergovernmental conference," he added.

The Ukrainian government said the EU has backed Ukraine's requests for transition periods in the accession negotiations.