Hungary Blocks Opening of EU Accession Clusters for Ukraine at Council Meeting

During a Council of the EU working group meeting on July 17, Hungary blocked the procedure to open accession negotiation clusters 2 and 3 for Ukraine. Budapest agreed to advance cluster 3 for Moldova, but other member states rejected decoupling the two candidate countries. Consequently, no decision was reached. The working group will revisit the screening results for both nations during its final meeting before the summer break on July 22.