The EU Foreign Affairs Council (GAC) did not adopt conclusions on enlargement today because Hungary blocked it, Danish Minister of European Affairs Marie Bjer said at a press conference in Brussels.
She said that after the Hungarian veto, it was decided that the GAC conclusions, which, among other things, envisage the formation of a working group to draft an accession treaty for Montenegro, would be transformed into conclusions of the EU Presidency, with the support of 26 member states.
"Hungary is blocking us from adopting the Council conclusions. Our attempts to find a solution were rejected. And for that I am truly sorry. As several members have said, this sends the wrong signal to the candidate countries. We want them to choose the EU, not Russia. We regret this, especially considering that enlargement is very important for all other member states, as well as the fact that candidate countries are delivering results within the framework of a merit-based approach. Instead, we will turn the draft Council conclusions into Presidency conclusions, with the support of the 26 member states," said Bjer.
When asked by journalists to clarify what happened to the Council's conclusions, she replied that they do not exist, but will be the conclusions of the Presidency. European Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin said that they believe that the formation of working groups for the preparation of the Draft Accession Treaty with Montenegro will begin.
During the meeting in Brussels, Bjere told reporters that Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government blocked the adoption of the conclusions because it did not want to simultaneously support the positive assessment of Ukraine's progress towards the EU in the document, even though that assessment is supported by all other EU countries, Beta reports.
In addition to the text on Ukraine, the EU declaration on the enlargement process was supposed to contain a position on the progress and setbacks of the six partners in the Western Balkans, as well as Turkey, Moldova and Georgia.
The draft conclusions, which Vijesti has access to, state that the Council takes note of the European Commission's communication and reports of 4 November 2025, and particularly welcomes, among other things, the fact that Montenegro has made further progress in accession negotiations and that 12 negotiation chapters have now been provisionally closed.
"The Council looks forward to the provisional closure of additional chapters as soon as possible, as soon as the conditions are met. Based on the overall progress made by Montenegro, the Council decides to establish an ad hoc Working Group for the preparation of a Draft Accession Treaty with Montenegro. In this regard, and as a matter of priority, the Council expects the necessary preparatory activities to ensure the efficient functioning of the ad hoc Working Group once it is established, including the clarification of key principles of future accession treaties," the Draft Conclusions state.
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"Twenty-six member states are showing strong support for Ukraine, and Ukraine is fulfilling what is required of it," explained Bjere and stated that "the formulation on Ukraine is fair and appropriate," Beta reports.
Germany's Minister of State for Europe, Günter Krichbaum, criticized Hungary's behavior as "increasingly destructive" and said the government in Budapest was "holding back the EU."
Hungary's veto means that Ukraine can no longer hope for formal rounds of negotiations on its planned EU accession.
However, Bjere stressed that the accession process is still progressing because work is already being done informally.
"This means that Ukraine is being given concrete guidelines on how it should implement reforms, what it should achieve and what results most member states expect from it," she said.
Therefore, Ukraine could progress very quickly towards the EU if Hungary were to drop its veto.
The Hungarian government justifies its rejection of Ukraine's EU accession by citing the country's large financial demands and the claim that the Hungarian minority in Ukraine is being placed at a disadvantage.
Orban also warns that Ukraine's accession to the EU could "destroy Hungary's economy."
Therefore, the blockade is not expected to be lifted before the Hungarian elections next spring.
State Secretary for Europe at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andreja Metelko Zgombić, told reporters in Brussels this afternoon that, "unfortunately, we were unable to adopt the text of the conclusions on enlargement as the Council, since one country was unable to give its consent."
"However, (other) conclusions have been established and Croatia welcomes them because they contain a whole series of messages of encouragement and support for enlargement based on merit," she said.
The conclusions were drawn on the basis of the European Commission's annual report assessing the progress of each candidate country, and they will be officially adopted at the EU Summit on December 18th and 19th.
She stressed that the Summit - the meeting of the European Council on Thursday, December 18, will be extremely important and that EU leaders will have to make a number of "extremely important decisions."
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