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The Netherlands blocked European Council President António Costa’s proposal to fast-track Ukraine’s EU accession on 1 October 2025, rejecting plans to open negotiating clusters by qualified majority rather than unanimity,Dutch national newspaper Trouw reported.
Costa’s plan to circumvent Hungary’s blockade exposes deeper EU divisions over institutional power, which reveals that Ukraine’s membership is stalled not by reform failures but by member states prioritizing their veto rights over bloc expansion—a pattern that could paralyze Europe’s response to authoritarian threats for years.
Dutch Caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof insisted at the Copenhagen summit that “the future of Moldova and Ukraine is in the EU,” but bypassing Hungary’s year-long veto “isn’t the way to get there,” arguing that any rule change would itself require unanimous support.
Costa’s proposal aimed to circumvent Budapest’s blockade
European Council President António Costa has spent weeks lobbying EU capitals for support to amend Ukraine’s negotiating framework, allowing the opening of accession clusters to be decided by qualified majority rather than unanimous consent of all 27 member states, according to Euronews. The proposal emerged after Hungary blocked Ukraine from opening its first negotiation cluster—covering fundamentals like democracy, human rights, and judicial systems—for over a year.
Under Costa’s plan, opening clusters would require only qualified majority approval, though closing clusters would still need unanimity. This would allow Ukraine and Moldova to begin implementing reforms and demonstrating progress toward EU standards even if Hungary continued its opposition.
Costa floated the idea during bilateral meetings on his tour of European capitals and at the UN General Assembly in New York before formally presenting it at the Copenhagen summit on 1 October 2025.
Netherlands prioritizes Copenhagen criteria over rule changes
Dick Schoof, Caretaker Prime Minister of the Netherlands, 2025. Source: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Speaking ahead of the Copenhagen informal summit, Schoof stressed that the Dutch government “remains committed to the Copenhagen criteria and the unanimity requirement they entail,” according to Trouw. He argued that changing the rules would itself require unanimous support—making Costa’s proposal legally impossible without Hungary’s consent. While acknowledging he “appreciates” Costa’s efforts, Schoof insisted the real solution is to “step up pressure on Hungary.”
The Netherlands has maintained consistent support for Ukraine’s EU integration through practical assistance. In April 2025, the Dutch government hosted the first Ukrainian-Dutch Intergovernmental Conference in Lviv to support Ukraine’s reform implementation and accession preparation. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp emphasized that “the Netherlands stands ready to support you where possible, in preparing for and implementing these reforms.”
However, this practical support does not extend to changing the EU’s fundamental decision-making rules.
France and Greece join resistance to qualified majority voting
The Netherlands is not alone in opposing Costa’s proposal. France and Greece have also expressed reservations about switching to qualified majority voting for enlargement decisions, Politico reported.
These countries oppose the change because it would prevent them from blocking membership applications they consider problematic. Greece wants to maintain leverage over Türkiye’s potential accession, Bulgaria seeks to control North Macedonia’s process, and Croatia wants oversight of Serbia’s application.
“We are not convinced of the advisability of changing the rules of the game during the game,” a senior EU diplomat told Politico.” “If you do qualified majority voting [to push the accession process forward], there is a very big risk of the process being extremely politicized,” they added.
Hungary’s obstruction rooted in domestic politics and strategic calculation
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has justified his veto with various rationales, including concerns about Russia’s ongoing war, energy security, agriculture, and the situation of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, Euronews reported.
In June 2025, Hungary conducted a national consultation in which 95% of the two million participants reportedly voted against Ukraine joining the EU. However, a separate poll by Hungary’s main opposition party Tisza found 58% of respondents supported Ukraine’s future EU membership, suggesting the government consultation may not reflect the full picture.
Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka warned that switching to qualified majority voting “would clearly contradict EU treaties and past practice,” accusing Brussels of seeking to “free itself from the legal limits of EU law,” the Hungarian Conservative reported.
Ukraine’s accession progress continues despite political deadlock
Despite the political gridlock, Ukraine has made substantial technical progress. The country completed screening of the first negotiation cluster in November 2024 and the second cluster in March 2025. The European Commission submitted its first screening report to the European Council in January 2025 and has recognized Ukraine’s reform efforts.
In June 2025, the European Council acknowledged that “the fundamentals cluster is ready to be opened” based on the Commission’s assessment. The Council “invites the Council [of the EU] to take the next steps in the accession process in line with the merit-based approach, with clusters being opened when the conditions are met.”
In relation to Ukraine’s accession process, on 29 September Enlargement spokesman Guillaume Mercier reiterated, “When a country is blocked without objective reasons, despite fulfilling the criteria, the credibility of the whole enlargement process is at risk,” according to EU News.
Broader implications for EU institutional balance
The dispute over qualified majority voting extends beyond Ukraine’s specific case to fundamental questions about EU governance. Smaller member states fear that eliminating unanimity requirements for enlargement would shift power entirely to larger countries and the Commission, marginalizing their interests.
Hungarian Minister Bóka’s accusation that “the European Commission is steering member states where it wants them, at the cost of destroying institutional balance” resonates with concerns in other capitals about Brussels accumulating power at the expense of national sovereignty.
In 2024, Germany and Slovenia presented a non-paper to the Council proposing qualified majority voting for interim steps in EU accession negotiations, with Denmark later joining after assuming the presidency. Overcoming unanimity during EU accession talks is not easy Approximately 16 member states now back this approach, according to New Union Post. However, the shift to qualified majority voting faces significant resistance, especially from smaller member states worried about diminished influence.
The Netherlands’ position reflects this institutional conservatism. While supportive of Ukraine’s membership in principle and willing to provide technical assistance for reforms, the Dutch government prioritizes preserving the decision-making architecture that protects smaller nations’ influence within the EU.
What comes next for Ukraine’s accession
At the Copenhagen summit, European Council President Costa emphasized that “Ukraine has been delivering on the accession reforms and that it is time for the EU to deliver, as enlargement is a merit-based process that will help make Europe stronger,” according to the European Council. However, he did not push his qualified majority proposal to a formal vote, recognizing insufficient support.
Leaders agreed to return to Ukraine’s accession at the next European Council meeting on 23-24 October 2025. Denmark, which holds the EU Council presidency through June 2025, has vowed to put “maximum pressure” on Hungary to lift its veto and aims to use its presidency to advance Ukraine’s accession process, Euronews reported.
At the European Political Community Summit on 2 October 2025, Zelenskyy stated:
“Supporting Moldova, Ukraine, and the Western Balkans on their path to EU membership is critical. We need real progress. Ukraine has completed the screening process. We are ready to open Cluster 1 — and this must be done. Just as agreed. This will definitely strengthen the overall situation.“
For now, Ukraine’s path to EU membership remains blocked not by any failure to meet technical criteria, but by the collision between Hungary’s geopolitical obstruction and other member states’ determination to preserve unanimity rules—even if that means Ukraine must wait months or years for accession talks to truly begin.
This stalemate exposes a core EU weakness: enlargement is described as merit-based, yet decisions still hinge on political calculations in several capitals. For Ukrainians who have advanced reforms under wartime conditions, the irony is stark—Kyiv is blocked not by its own progress, but by Europe’s refusal to loosen national vetoes. If this contradiction persists, the EU’s credibility on enlargement will falter. Ukraine has delivered; now the EU must pass its own test.
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