Good morning. Unsettling news to start: Russia has gained a technological edge in drone capabilities over Nato countries and could seek to exploit a “window of opportunity” by the end of 2028 to attack the alliance, Latvia’s military chief has warned.

Today, I report on Hungary’s decision to allow progress in Ukraine and Moldova’s EU accession negotiations after 17 months of veto, and our migration correspondent reports on EU countries’ struggles to implement tough border policies on the ground.

Let’s begin

Hungary has reversed a 17-month veto on Ukraine’s progress to join the EU, as the new government in Budapest signalled it would permit the start of formal accession negotiations for the war-torn country and neighbouring Moldova.

Context: Ukraine and Moldova were made EU candidate countries in June 2022, with the two countries’ bids “coupled” together. In January 2025, the European Commission recommended starting formal negotiations on aligning national laws with EU standards, but the move was blocked by then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

A decision by Orbán’s successor Péter Magyar last night paves the way for negotiations to start for both countries on June 15. That would see them start aligning their laws with EU standards in the first so-called cluster of six of a gruelling 33 policy areas, known as accession chapters.

Magyar said in a statement that Budapest would support Kyiv’s membership process in exchange for a “comprehensive agreement with Ukraine on expanding the linguistic, educational, cultural and political rights of the Hungarian minority”.

That agreement follows weeks of intense negotiations between Kyiv, Budapest and Brussels, and diplomatic pressure from other EU states on Magyar to demonstrate a break with the Orbán regime.

“The milestone decision to formally initiate accession negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova is a historic moment both for the candidate countries and for the EU,” said Marilena Raouna, deputy Europe minister of Cyprus, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency. Raouna added that Cyprus “had worked diligently and inclusively with all member states to secure tangible progress.”

Marta Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, told the FT last week that she expected Hungary to allow the opening of the first cluster this month and the remainder in July, citing a “changed narrative”.

Ahead of yesterday’s decision, both countries have been working with Brussels in an informal capacity over the past year to pass the legislation required to complete the chapters in advance.

Hungary’s volte-face came at the end of a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels yesterday evening, prompting a rush of technical processes to get the formal opening of the first cluster prepared in 11 days.

“We were waiting for so long, and now history is done on a rollercoaster,” said one European diplomat involved in the negotiations.

Foreign investors, including the EU, are moving out of US Treasuries because of the country’s rising debt, weaponisation of the dollar and the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Rhetoric vs reality

EU home affairs ministers meet today as the bloc takes additional steps to tighten its borders, but some policies are proving tricky to implement, writes Laura Dubois.

Context: The EU’s asylum and migration pact, over a decade in the making, comes into force next week. But a report by the European Commission states that many member states are not yet ready, with some still lacking the infrastructure needed to speed up asylum procedures at the bloc’s external borders.

Ministers will take stock of progress on implementing the reforms, while also discussing how to deepen co-operation with countries outside the EU on halting immigration, such as Somalia, according to a senior EU diplomat. 

The meeting comes as EU institutions just clinched a deal on new rules designed to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers, including by allowing them to be sent to so-called “hubs” in third countries they have no connection to.

Nicholas Ioannides, Cypriot deputy minister for migration, told reporters that the return hubs were the “highlight” of the new rules, but also admitted that “we don’t have any tangible results” yet on which countries would actually host them.

“The general idea is to set up those return hubs in areas maybe in Africa or Asia . . . not close to the European borders,” said Ioannides, adding that this would come “with obligations pertaining to the protection of fundamental human rights by hosting states”.

Ministers are also expected to discuss the bloc’s new biometric border controls — the so-called entry-exit system, which registers non-EU citizens and has been billed as a key part of the bloc’s migration policy.

But implementation remains patchy, with some countries only partially rolling out the checks, while airports are reporting delays.

“We need to find a way across Europe where the entry-exit system functions in an effective way,” said one senior EU diplomat.

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