EU to try to overcome Hungary's veto on negotiating clusters 2 and 3 for Ukraine on Tuesday

On Tuesday 29 September, the Council of the EU's Working Party on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU (COELA) will make another attempt to approve the screening results for negotiating clusters 2 and 3 for Ukraine, a step necessary for further progress towards opening them.

The Council of the EU will once again seek to persuade Hungary to allow Ukraine to open clusters 2 and 3 in its EU accession negotiations. Hungary has repeatedly blocked progress on the two clusters.

"The Ukraine issue is the first item on the agenda of the meeting, which will begin at 10:00 [11:00 Kyiv time]," one of European Pravda's sources said.

Representatives of EU member states will once again consider the screening results for Cluster 2, Internal Market, and Cluster 3, Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth, which have yet to be approved because of Hungary's opposition.

After discussing Ukraine, COELA will separately consider the screening results for the same clusters for Moldova.

As European Pravda previously reported, on 22 September, Vsevolod Chentsov, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, presented COELA with an update on Ukraine's implementation of its commitments as part of the EU accession negotiations.

COELA last attempted to approve the screening results for clusters 2 and 3 on 8 September but once again failed to reach agreement because Hungary continued to block the decision.

The process of approving the screening results for clusters 2 and 3 began in July 2026. On 17 July, Hungary blocked the decision concerning Ukraine while agreeing to allow only Cluster 3 to move forward for Moldova. However, most EU member states, led by Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, did not support an option that would separate Ukraine and Moldova in the accession process.