Hungary Blocks Start of Ukraine's EU Accession Talks – Sikorski

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced this in a comment to journalists on Monday in Brussels, where a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council was held, as reported by Ukrinform with reference to Onet.

“As the country that chairs, we feel a special responsibility for this process (the start of negotiations on Ukraine's membership). We would, of course, like to start one, and perhaps even two negotiating clusters, but unfortunately, this decision is being blocked by our long-time friend and former ally, Hungary,” Sikorski noted.

According to him, there was an active discussion at the Council meeting about the fact that the decision to start negotiations should be based “not on bilateral issues, but on compliance with criteria.”

“I must ritually mention the position of Pish, which maintains strong ideological ties with the government and the party of Viktor Orbán, and call on them to do something good for Panda and Ér, namely to convince their ideological allies to lift the block on these issues,” Sikorski emphasized.

Read also: If EU fails to convince Hungary, sanctions against Russia may not be extended – presidential spokesman

As reported, on March 17, a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council was held in Brussels, one of the key issues of which was the continuation of assistance to Ukraine and the search for ways to end the conflict in order to achieve a fair and stable peace. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga took part in the discussion via videoconference.

During a press conference in Warsaw, Andriy Sybiga stated that Ukraine is considering various options for resolving the problem of Hungary blocking the negotiation process and plans to actively use European diplomacy for this purpose.

Hungary has apparently decided not to block the extension of EU sanctions against Russia after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.