Ukraine Expects EU to Open Two Membership Talks Stages on Tuesday

Ukraine expects the European Union to sign off on opening the second and third stages of its accession negotiations on Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, according to a Reuters report. The announcement followed a decision by Ukraine's parliament a day earlier to expand education rights for Hungarian speakers and other minority groups.

Lawmakers in Kyiv passed the measure on Monday, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed it the same day, according to the Ukrainian parliament's official website. The law widens the right of minority communities to receive education in their mother tongue, addressing a long standing grievance raised by Budapest.

Sybiha said he met Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. Both sides welcomed the implementation of the bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Hungary, and Orban said in a post on X that the approval of the minority education rules was an important step.

The legislation is part of an arrangement with Hungary's new government to withdraw objections that had been holding up Ukraine's efforts to join the bloc. Minority language education had been one of the central sticking points in that dispute.

With the law signed, attention now turns to Brussels, where Kyiv anticipates a decision on the two negotiation stages as early as Tuesday.