Hungary’s leader says he is optimistic he’ll reach a deal with the Ukrainian president that could unblock Kyiv’s EU membership bid.

AI generated Text-to-speech

BERLIN — Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said Tuesday he is optimistic about reaching an agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the rights of Ukraine’s Hungarian minority — a deal that could help end Budapest’s opposition to Kyiv’s EU membership bid.

“I am ready for us to open a new chapter in Ukrainian-Hungarian relations,” Magyar said during a press conference in Berlin. “I am ready to negotiate with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy early next week,” he added, speaking alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a proponent of Ukraine’s EU membership bid.

The issue of the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine has long been a flashpoint in Kyiv’s EU membership drive, with former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán citing the matter as a key reason for Budapest’s opposition to the Ukrainian bid. Since Magyar’s inauguration in May, the two countries have started technical talks to break the deadlock.

Hungary has filed a 11-point plan to Kyiv on minority rights that includes the areas of education, language and cultural rights

“These negotiations are proceeding very positively,” Magyar said. “We hope to conclude these technical-level negotiations as early as this week.”

Ukraine hopes to join the EU as early as next year. But Budapest has so far prevented Kyiv from opening any negotiating “clusters” — groups of policy chapters core to accession talks. Should Hungary lift its veto, several clusters could be opened in the coming months.

In a letter to EU leaders two weeks ago, Merz proposed a more-immediate “associate membership” status for Ukraine that would grant the country access to EU institutions and closed-door debates, even before becoming an official member — a process that would be likely to take years. Zelenskyy rejected Merz’s proposal, saying “Ukraine’s place in the European Union must also be complete — full and equal.”

Asked whether expanded minority rights were a prerequisite for opening negotiating clusters, Magyar said it was “a fundamental expectation” of his government that Ukraine guarantees the cultural and linguistic rights of its Hungarian minority.

“Hopefully we are already close to a conclusion,” he said.

Magyar, however, also stressed that Budapest’s position to military aid to Kyiv remains unchanged.

“Hungary will not send either soldiers or weapons to Ukraine, not even under the new Hungarian government,” he said.

The announcement comes amid a decline of Holocaust awareness among German youth.

The intervention by a leading council of experts heaps fresh pressure on a chancellor already suffering from record-low approval ratings.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also called for EU sanctions on the far-right Israeli minister, who has been widely criticized for taunting activists aboard the Global Sumud flotilla.

At the start of a hot bank holiday weekend, lengthy queues had formed at Dover port in what its authorities described as a challenging situation.