Violations of the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians: Budapest explains why it blocks Ukraine’s path to the EU

Hungary will block Ukraine’s accession to the European Union until it restores the language rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians.

This was announced by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on his Facebook page.

The diplomat from Budapest stated that there are “constant violations of the rights of the Hungarian community in the Transcarpathian region.”

“The Ukrainian government, despite regular promises and pleasant words, has not returned the minority rights taken away from the Hungarian community since 2015. This is unacceptable and completely contradicts common European rules and values. Therefore, as long as this unfortunate situation persists, there can be no progress in negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU,” Szijjártó wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also accused Budapest of creating obstacles in Kyiv’s EU accession process.

It should be noted that recently, Hungary has been blocking all EU decisions supporting Ukraine.

For example, the latest draft of a collective EU statement, which Budapest refused to support, included provisions stating that:

• There can be no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine’s involvement;

• There can be no negotiations affecting European security without Europe’s participation;

• In 2025, the EU will provide Ukraine with €30.6 billion, part of which will come from profits generated by frozen Russian assets.

Earlier, Péter Szijjártó claimed that if Hungary vetoes sanctions, Brussels is ready to “violate” EU laws to extend sanctions against Russia.