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No EU Accession Talks for Ukraine Without More Hungarian Minority Rights, Magyar Says

Magyar raised the issue during a meeting with European Council President António Costa on Wednesday.

Kyiv Post

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१ मई, 2026

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Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Péter Magyar, will agree to approve negotiations for Ukrainian accession to the EU only if Ukraine grants more rights to its Hungarian minority, according to media reports.

The Bloomberg news agency, citing anonymous sources, reported on Thursday that Magyar raised the issue during a meeting with European Council President António Costa on Wednesday, with the soon-to-be Hungarian leader putting forward a list of conditions that must be met before Budapest would approve EU accession talks with Kyiv. 

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The conditions come despite EU officials urging Magyar to allow Ukraine’s EU membership negotiations to begin after he takes office as Hungary’s head of government, according to Bloomberg. 

Outgoing nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has for years accused Kyiv of restricting the cultural and linguistic rights of the roughly 150,000 ethnic Hungarians who live in Ukraine’s western Zakarpattia region – accusations denied by Kyiv. 

Orbán’s governing Fidesz party, which was soundly defeated by Magyar’s center-right Tisza bloc in elections on April 12, had long clashed with Kyiv on various issues, including Hungarian minority rights, and had blocked a €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine to help fund its defense against Russian attacks. 

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The election result raised hopes across the EU that Budapest would become a reliable supporter of Ukraine, but although the more EU-friendly Magyar is likely to approve the bloc’s loan to Kyiv, the rights of Ukraine’s Hungarian population appear to remain a thorny issue. 

In a social media post on Tuesday, Magyar urged Kyiv to “take bold steps” toward increasing the language rights of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarians, adding that he wants to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early June in Berehove, a Hungarian-majority town in Ukraine. 

Zelenskyy, appearing to downplay the issue, told Bloomberg on Thursday that he would meet with Magyar, adding: “We are working on all matters concerning our Hungarian minority… They are our citizens just like everyone else. 

“Perhaps not everything has been settled yet. But, frankly speaking, there is no real problem here,” Zelenskyy said. 

Kyiv’s EU aspirations 

Ukraine applied to join the EU on February 28, 2022, just four days after the country was invaded by Russia. 

In addition to being a highly symbolic gesture of alignment with the West, the move was widely interpreted as a means to bolster Ukraine’s security in the future in the face of an aggressive Moscow. 

However, the process to join the bloc can take many years and requires unanimous agreement from the bloc’s member states as well as significant economic and judicial reforms, which Kyiv has taken steps toward implementing while fighting a war for its survival.