The EU is preparing to start technical work on Ukraine and Moldova joining the bloc despite Hungary’s continued blockade of advancing accession talks, according to officials briefed on the process.
Kyiv applied for membership in 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion — and was soon followed by neighbouring Moldova. Both countries formally started EU accession talks last year, but Hungary has since objected to the next steps: unanimous decisions by the bloc’s 27 members to formally open so-called negotiation “chapters” to align the two nations’ legislation with EU rules in areas ranging from energy to competition and rule of law.
The European Commission has proposed adjusting its own rules to circumvent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s veto by starting the technical work in several “clusters” even in the absence of a formal decision to open talks in those areas, the officials said.