Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán defended his decision to veto a €50bn EU aid package for Ukraine and said he could still stop the country from joining the bloc after it was given the green light to start talks yesterday for membership, reported Reuters.
At the summit in Brussels, other European Union leaders sidestepped Orbán’s objections by arranging for him to leave the room as they took the historic step of agreeing to open accession talks with a country at war. However, they could not overcome the opposition of Hungary’s prime minister, who has close ties to Russia, to overhauling the bloc’s budget to direct vital financial support to Ukraine and provide more money for other EU priorities, such as managing migration, notes Reuters.
Orban told Hungarian state radio that he had to block the aid package for Ukraine – part of a wider multi-year budget plan – to make sure Hungary gets the funds it wants from the EU budget.
“I have always said that if someone wants to change the budget – and they do – then this is a great opportunity for Hungary to make it clear that it should get what it deserves. Not half or a quarter of it “, he emphasized.
The Hungarian Prime Minister described the start of negotiations with Ukraine for joining the EU as a “bad decision”. “Hungary bears no responsibility for this, we can stop this process later and if necessary, we can hit the brakes, and the final decision will be taken by the Hungarian parliamentarians,” stressed Orbán./BTA
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2023-12-15 11:27:00
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