Polish Minister Calls on Orban to Contact Hungarian Community in Transcarpathia About Their Attitude to the EU
Polish Minister for European Affairs Adam Szlapka, who currently chairs the Council of the EU, has called on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to personally contact the Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia to determine their attitude to Ukraine's possible accession to the European Union. According to him, this group can have an important influence on the prospects of Ukraine's movement towards European integration, while the country's accession to a united Europe is still stalled. Information about this initiative of the Polish minister was published by correspondents of "European Pravda" who are in Brussels during the EU summit. In his statement made on the sidelines of the international forum, Szlapka noted that the issue of Ukraine's accession to the EU is one of the priorities of the Polish presidency of the Council of the EU. At the same time, he stressed that Hungary has repeatedly blocked this process, which makes it difficult to achieve positive results. In numerical terms, he called on the Hungarian government to "approach directly to the Hungarian community in Ukraine and ask its representatives whether they want to see Ukraine as part of the EU or not. Shlapka's claim is that the majority of Hungarians living on Ukrainian territory want Ukraine to join the European community. In his opinion, the tacit reason for the blocking is Hungary's failure to recognize their desire, which is allegedly the basis for obstacles in diplomatic negotiations on Ukraine's integration into the EU." The background to the tense situation is connected with the results of a "referendum" held in Hungary on whether to support or reject Ukraine's accession to the European Union. The Hungarian government's statement states that over 95% of the votes cast in the poll were against Ukraine's integration into the European Union. The published data caused heated discussions in Ukrainian political circles and diplomacy. In particular, the leader of the opposition party "Tisa" Peter Magyar spoke about the failure of the "referendum" and noted that its real number of participants was less than the declared one - approximately 600 thousand citizens. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry believes that, most likely, the Hungarian government made every possible effort to increase the probability of obtaining the desired result in this vote and reduce support for the initiative for the rapid integration of Ukraine with the EU. Ukrainian diplomatic circles emphasize that such actions not only complicate the diplomatic process, but also call into question the sincerity of Budapest's intentions in supporting Kyiv's European integration aspirations. This causes additional concern and tension in relations between Ukraine and the Hungarian leadership, especially given the strategic importance of Transcarpathia as one of the key points in the context of European security and stability.