Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar is due to hold his first official one-to-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, following a major breakthrough on Hungarian-language education in Ukraine.
Magyar announced the planned meeting in a Facebook post on Wednesday as he travelled to Brussels for a key European Union summit. Before the summit, he is also scheduled to meet the leaders of the Visegrád Four countries and attend several other high-level discussions.
The talks with Zelenskyy are expected to take place on Friday morning and will mark the two leaders’ first official meeting.
A long-awaited meeting after strained relations
Since Hungary’s change of government, a meeting between Magyar and Zelenskyy has repeatedly been discussed. Relations between Kyiv and the previous Hungarian government were highly strained, making direct talks between the two leaders a long-awaited step for both sides.
A major development came on Monday, when Ukraine announced a historic legislative move to guarantee education in Hungarian for the country’s Hungarian-speaking minority. The announcement appears to have helped pave the way for Friday’s meeting.
The rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine, particularly in Transcarpathia, have long been a source of tension between the two countries. Disputes over minority-language education contributed to the difficult relationship between Kyiv and the previous Hungarian government.
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EU summit to focus on borders, energy and funding
Magyar said the Brussels summit would address several issues crucial to Hungary’s future, including strengthening the protection of the EU’s external borders, tackling the energy crisis and negotiating the bloc’s next seven-year budget.
His schedule also includes talks with the prime ministers of the Visegrád Four — Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — as well as a meeting of European People’s Party leaders and a cohesion policy discussion convened by Italy’s prime minister.
The EU’s long-term budget is particularly important for Hungary, as it will shape the funding available for development and investment across the bloc in the coming years.
Magyar is expected to return to Hungary late on Friday night. Until then, Deputy Prime Minister Bálint Ruff will coordinate the government’s work, according to the prime minister’s announcement.
Featured image: Facebook/Péter Magyar