Negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU in December are in jeopardy - Reuters

The December decision to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU is under threat. This is what Reuters quoted its own sources in the Bloc as saying.

A high-ranking official in a personal conversation with the agency's journalists said that a decision on Ukraine might not be taken in mid-December as previously planned.

In particular, he said that one of the reasons for this is the resistance of Hungary, which may block the unanimous decision of the 27 EU member states by putting forward some conditions of its own.

He also reminded that Ukraine's integration into the EU envisages another assessment in March 2024.

"I think some people will use this to say 'Let's come back to this in March'," he said.

Earlier, the European Commission recommended to start negotiations on accession to the EU Ukraine and Moldova.

We will remind, on 28 February 2022, four days after the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the application for Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

On 17 June 2022, the European Commission recommended granting Ukraine candidate status in the EU and put forward seven conditions for the start of accession negotiations. In particular, they included judicial reform, reforming the Constitutional Court, fighting corruption, an anti-oligarchy law, changing the legislation on national minorities and harmonising audio-visual legislation with the European one.

EU leaders at the summit on 23 June 2022 supported granting candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.

We would like to point out that the Nézőpont Intézet think tank, which is close to the Hungarian authorities, published the result of a certain "poll" according to which the majority of Hungarians allegedly oppose Ukraine's accession to the EU. Hungary has recently stepped up its threats to block the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU because of the alleged infringement of the rights of the Hungarian-speaking minority in Ukraine. We would like to emphasise that the head of the Hungarian government, Viktor Orban, is a supporter of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's policy.