Instead of the unanimity required for Ukraine’s accession to the EU, public opinion in 11 EU Member States opposes the belligerent country’s accelerated accession. The majority of the population in several neighbouring and surrounding countries (Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic) as well as in Germany and France, the two most populous Member States of the European Union, do not support Ukraine’s accession to the European Union as soon as possible, according to the latest results of Századvég’s 2025 Project Europe survey.

Brussels continues to support Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU

In May 2025, Ursula von der Leyen said at a plenary session of the European Parliament that “Ukraine’s accession to the European Union must be accelerated”, stressing that “work is underway for Ukraine to open all chapters of the accession process by 2025”. The view of the President of the European Commission fits in well with recent months’ political agenda in Brussels, which aims to speed up Ukraine’s accession to the EU. It is important to record that the Treaty on the European Union clearly states that the Council, representing the governments of the Member States, must decide unanimously on the admission of a state applying for membership to the European Community.[1]

No European consensus on Ukraine’s EU membership

The 2025 Project Europe survey found that if European politicians in the Council acted in line with their country’s public opinion on Ukraine’s EU accession, not only would there be no unanimity, but also the qualified majority requirement would not be reached for Ukraine’s accession.[2]

Regardless of the current state of the war, the proportion of those who oppose Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the European Union exceeds the number of supporters in 11 Member States,

while in 16 Member States the proportion of those in favour of accession is higher.

It is important to note that the index calculated from the difference between respondents supporting and opposing Ukraine’s earliest possible accession is in the negative range in several countries neighbouring or surrounding Ukraine (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic), as well as in the two most populous Member States of the European Union (Germany and France). This means that the forced accession of this belligerent country is opposed by the majority of the population in these countries. Survey data show that

only 10 of the 27 EU Member States have more than 50% of Europeans in favour of Ukraine’s rapid accession.
• The Project Europe survey

In the first half of 2016, the Századvég Foundation conducted a public opinion survey covering the 28 Member States of the European Union to examine the views of European citizens on the issues that most affect the future of the Union. The Project28 public opinion survey was the most extensive ever, with a unique survey of 1,000 randomly selected adults per country, totalling 28,000. The main objectives of the survey were to gauge public sense of prosperity and to explore public attitudes towards the performance of the European Union, the migration crisis and rising terrorism. Following the surveys of 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Századvég Foundation, on behalf of the Hungarian government, continued the research since 2020 under the name Project Europe, which continued to reflect on the most dominant topics in European political and public discourse. The 2025 survey was carried out in 30 countries across Europe, interviewing 30,000 people using the CATI method between 18 February and 17 April.

[1] Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU)

[2] Qualified majority requires that the following two conditions are met simultaneously: 55% of Member States (i.e. 15 out of 27 Member States) vote in favour of accession, and the Member States supporting accession represent at least 65% of the total population of the EU.