Hungarian Foreign Ministry calls Ukraine's EU accession before 2030 unrealistic

Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said that Budapest does not consider Ukraine's accession to the European Union before 2030 realistic and opposes accelerated enlargement. According to her, all candidates must go through the same stages. The European Commission, for its part, does not name a specific accession date.

Otabek YusupovFirst published on tafs uz 6 November 2026 at 00:012 min read

The key facts

Hungary does not consider Ukraine's EU accession before 2030 realistic
Budapest opposes accelerated accession: candidates must go through all the stages like everyone else
The European Commission does not name a date for Ukraine's accession; Kyiv hopes for the opening of clusters on December 15

Budapest's position

Hungary does not consider Ukraine's accession to the European Union before 2030 realistic. This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán at a joint press conference with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys. “You are asking about a specific date and whether we consider this realistic. We do not consider it realistic,” she was quoted as saying by Life.ru.

Against accelerated accession

Orbán explained that Budapest stands for uniform rules for admitting new members: every country must meet all the requirements and go through the same stages as the states that have already joined the European Union. “We do not support accelerated accession. <...> We have many candidate countries that have been in this status for more than ten years,” she added.

Negotiations context

The statement came amid reports of Kyiv's attempts to speed up negotiations with Brussels: the Ukrainian authorities fear that elections in European countries in 2027 will complicate further progress toward membership, and they expect to receive approval on December 15 to open the remaining negotiating clusters. The European Commission, for its part, does not name any timelines: EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos previously said that there is no specific date at this point. Thus, Hungary's position diverges from Kyiv's plans to speed up the process, while Brussels is so far refraining from giving any dates.