Denmark vows ‘maximum pressure’ on Hungary to lift veto on Ukraine’s EU membership talks

Denmark’s Minister for European Affairs, Marie Bjerre, said this during a press briefing, Ukrinform reports, citing Euronews.

“We are very ambitious and we will do all we can. We will put maximum pressure on Hungary in order to lift its reservations. And we are willing to do all that we can, politically and practically, in order to move forward with Ukraine and also Moldova and the countries in the Western Balkans. This is important for the Ukrainians. This is important in their fight (against Russia). They need to have the perspective of EU membership. And we are not taking that perspective away,” Bjerre said.]

She did not detail any specific method to bypass the Hungarian veto, simply saying it was “too soon” to tell whether it had become effectively insurmountable.

The minister repeatedly warned that fulfilling the promise made to candidate countries was essential to strengthen the “security and stability” of the European Union. “If we do not move forward with enlargement,” she said, “we risk losing some of these countries.”

The European Commission replied by saying there were “no objective reasons” to oppose Ukraine’s accession, as the war-battered country had delivered the requested reforms and met the necessary criteria to open the “Fundamentals” cluster.

In May, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated in parliament that Budapest opposes Ukraine’s EU membership, claiming such a development would “lead to Hungary’s bankruptcy” and therefore cannot be supported. On June 26, Orban said that following government-conducted “national consultations” (Voks-2025), 95% of Hungarians allegedly opposed Ukraine’s EU membership.

At the same time, the EU stated that these national consultation results are not binding, although the European Commission has taken them into account.

Photo: European Union