Hungary Does Not Extend Its Ukraine Veto to Moldova's Cluster Three

At a further EU Council enlargement working-party meeting, Hungary vetoed opening a new negotiating cluster covering the internal market and competition policy for Ukraine, conditioning further movement on implementation of pledges protecting the rights of Ukraine's Hungarian minority. However, Budapest did not extend that veto to Moldova, opening a possible procedural path for Moldova's cluster three to proceed on its own track for the first time since the two candidates' accession processes became informally linked in 2022. Other EU member states remain reluctant to fully decouple the two candidates, and no formal cluster-opening ceremony for Moldova has been confirmed; the practical effect on Chisinau's stalled clusters two and three, blocked since Hungary's twin July vetoes, was not yet clear.