Politics

Hungarian PM rejects Ukraine’s membership bid at EU summit

Brussels, Dec 14 (EFE) – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday that there are “no reasons” for the European Union to negotiate Ukraine’s accession because it has not yet fulfilled the requirements demanded by the European Commission.

“Enlargement is not a theoretical issue. Enlargement is a merit-based, legally-detailed process (with) preconditions,” he said on arrival at the summit.

Orban said the bloc had set seven preconditions, and even with the European Commission’s assessment, three of the seven prerequisites were unfulfilled. “There is no reason to negotiate Ukraine’s membership now.”

The EU summit started later than planned because European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Orban to convince him to lift his veto.

The Hungarian leader has opposed accession negotiations and the 50 billion euros ($54.5 billion) financial package for war-battered Ukraine that Brussels has promised Kyiv.

Asked if a deal was possible, Orban insisted that the negotiations with Ukraine must begin once Kyiv fulfilled all the conditions.

The European Commission said in November that Ukraine had fulfilled 90 percent of the reforms needed to start accession negotiations and recommended that bloc leaders start talks with Kyiv.

Orban also opposed the European Commission’s proposed aid plan for Ukraine until 2027, part of the revision of the multi-annual EU budget for 2023–2027. The package aims to provide more predictable financial assistance to Kyiv.

Orban argued that if long-term and larger sums of aid are to be granted to Ukraine, such assistance should be placed “outside the (EU’s) budget.”

He said that, in the short term, there was already allocated aid for Kyiv, making additional decisions unnecessary.

Orban suggested that the European Commission postpone the decision on aid for Ukraine until after the upcoming European Parliament elections in 2024.

Hungary is the only dissenting voice against the proposed four-year aid package.

With the requirement of unanimous support from all 27 EU members, Hungary’s potential veto could impact the initiative.

Days before the summit, diplomatic sources proposed a workaround for the potential Hungarian veto by removing the aid from the budget.

The suggestion involved utilizing an intergovernmental formula to finance the aid, thereby avoiding the necessity of Hungarian support.

An example of this approach is the extension of the existing financial assistance program, which secures funds from markets with guarantees from each member state.

Orban denied his government was linking support for Ukraine’s accession and aid to releasing all European funds frozen in the wake of deficiencies in its rule of law.

The European Commission recently released 10.2 billion euros for Budapest, following the approval of reforms to enhance judicial independence.

However, a substantial amount, 21 billion euros, remains frozen due to ongoing concerns.

EU leaders insisted on the need to approve the financial package to send a message of unity in support of Kyiv and rejected linking it to Hungarian demands.

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