Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he will not allow the EU to make a mistake and start accession negotiations with Ukraine, even if he is the only one of the 27 member states’ leaders.
⠀
“The European Union is about to make a terrible mistake, which must be prevented. Even if twenty-six want to make it, and only we will be against… In fact, Ukraine is not in a state to begin accession negotiations, but because of the war, for geostrategic reasons , so to speak, for political reasons, we still need to start negotiations with her. In my opinion, this is a mistake,” Orban said.
⠀
The Hungarian leadership consistently opposes the launch of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the union at the EU summit on December 14-15.
⠀
In addition, Budapest is now blocking the eighth tranche of military aid to Kiev from the European Peace Fund in the amount of 500 million euros, as well as packages of military (20 billion euros) and macro-financial (50 billion euros) support from the EU for 2024-2027.
⠀
On November 8, the European Commission recommended starting negotiations on accession to the EU with Ukraine and Moldova and conditioned the adoption of the negotiation framework on the fulfillment of several conditions by Kiev and Chisinau.
⠀
The formal decision to begin the negotiation process will be discussed by the heads of state and government at the EU summit in Brussels on December 14-15. It must be adopted unanimously by all current members of the European Union.
⠀
Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Budapest proposes not to put the issue of starting negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the EU on the summit agenda at all, since it is clear in advance that there will be no agreement among the member countries. He also expressed the opinion that the possibility of Kyiv joining the association could be discussed in five to ten years, subject to the conclusion of a strategic partnership agreement with the republic.
