Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine - Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna considers Hungary's intention to put the issue of Ukraine's future membership in the European Union to a referendum only as a small obstacle that will not prevent the opening of all negotiation clusters on accession in 2025.

"This is not a referendum, a written survey of citizens. Such a written survey also took place before the European Council's decision in December 2023 to open the negotiation process. We have already gone through it. I think that the support of the citizens of Hungary is much more positive than the expectations of the Hungarian government," Stefanishyna told reporters on Thursday in Kyiv, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine about Ukraine's position on Hungary's announcement of its intention to put the issue of Ukraine's future membership in the EU to a referendum.

She emphasized that Ukraine is confident that the issue of EU membership is a decision that has already been made, and "considers it as a small obstacle that will not prevent opening all negotiation clusters this year."

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that the issue of Ukraine's membership in the European Union would be put to a vote within his country.

As reported, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos hopes to open the first three clusters of negotiations between Ukraine and the EU on joining the Union in the first half of this year - during the Polish presidency, and the remaining three by December.