Brussels outmaneuvers Hungary to keep Ukraine’s EU path alive

The European Union and Ukraine have agreed on a detailed action plan enabling Kyiv to make technical progress on its EU membership bid despite Hungary’s continued blockade of formal accession talks.

EU officials framed the initiative as essential to Ukraine’s long-term security architecture, Euronews reports.

“We see the membership of Ukraine in the EU as the political arm of the European security guarantee for Ukraine,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said on December 11 at an informal ministerial meeting in Lviv. She added that accession would be “central to make any peace settlement sustainable.”

Outlined in a joint statement by Kos and Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka, the new 10-point plan allows the European Commission to bypass Hungary’s political veto on opening accession negotiations — a decision that ordinarily requires unanimous approval by all 27 EU leaders. Under the arrangement, Ukraine will proceed informally with the reforms expected of candidate countries, supported by the Commission, allowing technical negotiations to continue despite Budapest’s opposition.

“We are now frontloading all the technical work and that means that even though it’s formally still blocked (…) Ukraine is still able to move on,” Denmark’s EU Affairs Minister Marie Bjerre told reporters, adding: “There cannot be a blockade for eternity, it has to be lifted.”

An EU official stressed the urgency of the workaround, saying it was important to “not lose time” and “get Ukraine closer to the finish line” so the country is more advanced when political consensus on its accession emerges.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has injected renewed urgency into the EU’s historically slow enlargement policy. Ukraine and Moldova were swiftly granted candidate status shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, however, continues to oppose Ukraine’s accession while the conflict persists.

The new plan follows informal talks in Lviv involving EU affairs ministers from all member states except Hungary, during which officials presented Kyiv with expectations for progress in the coming year. The 10-point roadmap details reforms Ukraine must implement to strengthen the rule of law, combat corruption, and reinforce judicial independence.

A key priority is anti-corruption reform. The plan’s first point commits Ukraine to “strengthening the independence” of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), “protecting their jurisdiction from circumvention and undue influence,” and expanding their remit to include all high-risk positions. Kyiv also pledges to adopt a new anti-corruption strategy and state program by the second quarter of 2025.

The emphasis follows recent EU criticism of backsliding, including Kyiv’s withdrawal of legislation that would have undermined NABU and SAPO’s independence. An ongoing investigation into alleged kickback schemes at Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom recently prompted the resignation of Andrii Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff.

The plan comes as Ukraine faces rising pressure from the United States to move swiftly toward a peace agreement with Russia amid uncertainty over future Western assistance. According to media reports, Zelenskyy’s updated 20-point peace plan presented to the White House includes a proposal for Ukraine to secure EU membership by 2027.

By Vafa Guliyeva