Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, said there was goodwill in many EU countries toward opening Ukraine's last two negotiation clusters before the year is out. He spoke at a press conference with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin on the evening of 11 November, Yevropeiska Pravda reported.

Ukraine is negotiating to join the EU while fighting off Russia's full-scale invasion. For years the main obstacle inside the bloc was Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister who said in January he expected no Hungarian parliament to vote for Ukraine's accession in the next 100 years. Orbán lost power in April, but Budapest is still holding up the talks, now at the technical level, as Ireland's presidency runs out.

Four clusters open, two to go

Ireland would have to use its powers of persuasion, Martin said, but there was a lot of goodwill in many countries. Opening every cluster, he added, would send Ukrainians a strong signal that Europe had opened the way to membership.

Clusters 4 and 5 are the last two Ukraine has yet to open, and it cannot join the EU until every cluster has been opened and closed. Cluster 4 covers transport, energy, and climate, and cluster 5 covers agriculture, regional policy, and budget rules, the Ukrainian government said in December 2025. “We must open all negotiating clusters this year,” Zelenskyy said in Dublin, the President’s Office reported. Ukraine has opened four of the six clusters. Martin said three of them were opened under Ireland’s presidency, which ends on 31 December.

Stalled since June

A day earlier, Hungary declined to approve the screening results for clusters 4 and 5, a required step before a cluster can open. The refusal came at a meeting of COELA, the Council's enlargement working group, on 10 November, Yevropeiska Pravda reported. It was not the first: Hungary also refused on 20 October and again on 27 October. In June, Budapest held up screening for clusters 2–6 in the same working group, saying its experts needed more time.

Hungary says its questions concern the content of the negotiating chapters themselves, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Vsevolod Chentsov said at the EU Accession Exchange Forum on 4 November. The delay is not about minority rights, and Budapest has made no new demands on them so far, Yevropeiska Pravda reported.

The thaw began earlier: Péter Magyar's government reached an agreement with Kyiv on the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Zakarpattia Oblast in early June, which cleared the way for the first cluster to open. Weeks later, Magyar argued against opening all clusters at once. In October, after Kyiv filed a bill on minority-language schooling, Hungary agreed to unblock two more, and the EU opened them on 13 October.

Moldova waits too

At the same time, the delay holds back Moldova, whose bid has been deliberately linked to Ukraine's since 2022. Both countries are technically ready to open the last two clusters, according to the European Commission, Moldovan President Maia Sandu told Hungarian outlet Válasz Online on 2 November. Holding Moldova back does not help Ukraine, she said. Sandu added that she had raised the stalled clusters with Magyar and hoped the European Council would decide on them at its last summit of the year.

Hungary on 27 October again refused to approve the screening results for clusters 4 and 5, the last two blocks of Ukraine’s EU accession talks that remain unopened, at a meeting of the EU Council’s enlargement working party in Brussels, European Pravda reported, citing several EU diplomats. It was Budapest’s second refusal in a week.

Ukraine is pursuing EU membership while fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion, and for years its path ran into vetoes from Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. Orbán lost power in April to Péter Magyar, who promised to bring Hungary back to Europe. His government is now the one blocking the last two clusters.

Brussels knew Budapest would say no

One of the diplomats said that “Hungary’s position has not changed.” Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, knew in advance that Budapest would not move but put the item on the agenda anyway. Another diplomat described the repeat vote as a political move to raise pressure on Hungary rather than a real attempt to get a yes.

Hungary’s arguments were not disclosed on 20 October, when it first blocked the step. Cluster 4 covers transport, energy, trans-European networks, the environment, and climate. Cluster 5 covers agriculture, fisheries, regional policy, and budget rules.

Kyiv paid for two clusters, and the last two stay shut

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s parliament passed the minority-language schooling law Budapest had demanded, and the EU opened clusters 2 and 3 on 13 October. Magyar’s government has tied its support to Kyiv meeting 11 demands on the rights of the Hungarian minority.

On 16 October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held his first one-on-one meeting with Magyar in Brussels and thanked him for opening the two clusters, adding that work was underway to open the remaining two by the end of the year, his office said. Ten days later, Zelenskyy set out why the timing matters.

“It is very important that the remaining two negotiating clusters for Ukraine are opened by the end of this year, and that during the Lithuanian presidency we could already close negotiating chapters,” he wrote.

Lithuania takes over the EU Council presidency in January.

Budapest’s next moves may also decide whether Ukraine and Moldova still advance together.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu discussed the opening of her country’s last two clusters with Magyar during a visit to Budapest last week, and in July Hungary already offered to move Moldova ahead on its own.