EU Moves Forward with Ukraine and Moldova Membership Talks After Hungary Drops Blockade

Ukraine and Moldova have moved closer to European Union membership after reaching an agreement on Hungarian minority rights that resolved a blocking dispute. The European Union is now preparing to open the first cluster of accession negotiations with both countries. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had previously blocked progress on the membership talks, using concerns about the treatment of Hungarian minorities in Ukraine as leverage. The breakthrough comes as the EU seeks to expand eastward while managing internal disagreements among member states about enlargement policy.