Informative · Russia-Ukraine war

Hungary just agreed to unblock Ukraine's path into the EU

1 hour ago · 2 October 2026Share

The Hungarian Parliament Building, the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary. — The Hungarian Parliament Building is the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary, a notable landmark of Hungary. Pierre Blaché · CC0

Hungary and Ukraine just struck a deal on minority schools.

And it's about to unlock two chapters of Ukraine's EU membership talks.

So here's what happened. Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, registered a new bill a couple of days ago. It rewrites the rules on schools for national minorities. In exchange, Hungary is expected to let two clusters of Ukraine's EU accession talks move forward within the next two weeks.

The bill has a long name: "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Ensuring Educational Rights of Indigenous Peoples and National Minorities."

Here's the rule inside it. A school gets "national minority school" status if at least half, plus one, of its students learn in that minority's language. Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science says that could apply to 149 schools. That's about 1.2% of all general secondary schools in the country.

The bill also exempts 29 heads of private schools from a Ukrainian-language certification requirement.

And here's what it doesn't do. It gives none of these protections to the Russian language.

So why does any of this matter to the EU? Because Hungary has used this exact issue to block Ukraine for months.

Hungary says Ukraine's education laws discriminate against ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine's Zakarpattia region. How many Hungarians? Sources don't agree. Some say 80,000. Others say 100,000.

Hungary first demanded changes under an 11-point plan agreed with Kyiv back in June. A month ago, Hungary used its veto to block two negotiating clusters — Cluster 2, Internal Market, and Cluster 3, Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth — until Ukraine acted on minority schools.

Now Ukraine has acted.

Mykyta Poturaiev, who co-wrote the bill and chairs the Rada's Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, says the new school status won't be automatically pulled if the share of students in the minority language later drops. One outlet reports the status stays in place until that share falls below 20%, and only then gets reviewed.

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, says this isn't a "Hungarian law." It protects every national minority in Ukraine, not just Hungarians.

So how did this breakthrough actually happen? At the UN General Assembly in New York, Andrii Sybiha met Anita Orbán, Hungary's Foreign Minister — who is not related to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The two agreed to keep the negotiations quiet while they worked out the details.

Now the timetable. And it's tight.

The rest of this story is for members.

On 6 October, Hungary is due to let the EU's enlargement working group send Ukraine a formal request for its negotiating positions. On 12 October, the Rada holds an extraordinary session to vote on the bill. On 13 October, the EU is due to formally decide on opening the two clusters, at a meeting in Luxembourg. Then on 15 October, a European Council summit follows that will also touch on enlargement.

But here's the thing. None of those steps has happened yet.

As of the most recent reporting, Hungary has not formally lifted its veto. Every stage of this is still scheduled, not done.

And Hungary has done this before. It agreed in June to lift its veto on these same two clusters, after an earlier minority-rights deal with Kyiv. It didn't follow through until now.

Péter Magyar, Hungary's Prime Minister and the successor to Viktor Orbán, wrote on social media that the bill says quote "strengthens the legal guarantees of education in the Hungarian language". Anita Orbán says she welcomes the step, which came after weeks of expert talks between the two governments and consultations with the Transcarpathian Hungarian community.

In Kyiv, Serhiy Babak, who heads the Rada's Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, wrote on Telegram that the bill says quote "protects the Ukrainian language, grants clear rights to national minorities and indigenous peoples". Volodymyr Viatrovych, an MP from the European Solidarity party who has previously been cautious on minority-language issues, says he plans to vote for the bill.

Vsevolod Chentsov, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, says Ukraine expects all its remaining clusters to open by the end of the year — including two more, numbers 4 and 5, which aren't part of this deal.

And even if the next two weeks go exactly as planned, that doesn't mean Ukraine is getting into the EU soon. Péter Magyar has said finishing all 33 accession chapters could take Ukraine another 10 to 15 years. He has also said Hungary could still hold a binding referendum on Ukraine's membership once that process is complete.

So three things are still unknown. Whether Ukraine's parliament actually passes the bill on 12 October. Whether Hungary keeps its side of the deal on 13 October. And whether the two clusters still blocked after that — numbers 4 and 5 — open by the end of the year, like Kyiv hopes.

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Hungary just agreed to unblock Ukraine's path into the EU

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