Ukraine's entire EU accession negotiating team walked the last stretch into Brussels on foot this week, carrying the two newly opened negotiation clusters in weatherproof display cases after Hungary dropped its veto and waved them through.
The procession left the Ukrainian embassy at dawn, crossed the city in matching embroidered vests, and arrived at the European Commission's Berlaymont headquarters before lunch, where staff applauded from the windows. The clusters were then placed on a velvet table for what officials called «a ceremonial first reading».
Hungary's prime minister, Péter Magyar, jogged the final kilometre alongside the column in a tracksuit, telling reporters he had given up vetoing «for the sake of the Hungarian minority's right to cheer in two languages». Budapest's municipal band played the Ukrainian anthem twice, then the Hungarian anthem once, then the Ukrainian anthem again because the crowd kept asking.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined by video link from a train, said the walk would become an annual tradition and that next year's route would be longer. «We will walk until the clusters run out,» he said. «Then we will walk back.»
Brussels shopkeepers reported a run on embroidered vests, and the city's tram operator added a stop called «Enlargement». A Commission spokesperson confirmed that the next bilateral meeting between Zelensky and Magyar would be held on a treadmill, «to keep the pace».