December 14, 2023 5:03 p.m
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán Viktor Orbán (in Hungarian: Orbán Viktor) is the current Prime Minister of Hungary, insisted today that the EU should not yet start negotiations on joining the union with Ukraine, informed Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Orban also blocked the provision of 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in financial aid to Ukraine, which was planned to be allocated from the EU budget. At the same time, he signaled that he would support long-term aid that does not come from the EU budget, allowing some sort of deal to be reached at a time when Ukraine desperately needs help from its Western allies in the two-year war against the Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive is not yielding serious results so far, and the Biden administration has so far been unable to get congressional approval for a package of $60 billion in financial aid to Kiev, Reuters notes.
All EU leaders except Orbán support the decision to start the negotiation process, which must be taken unanimously. Although the procedure itself will take years, it will give Kiev a positive boost, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba this week calling it “the mother of all solutions”, according to Reuters.
Tusk is trying to convince Orban not to block the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU
For his part, Orbán, upon his arrival in Brussels for the high-level meeting, said that “Hungarians do not give in to pressure.”
“There are conditions that have not been met. The council is not in a position to make a decision,” he said, adding: “We have our opinion and we will stand by it.”
The remaining 26 European leaders support the European Commission’s recommendation from last month to start negotiations for Ukraine’s membership in the union.
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Konstantin Todorov
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2023-12-14 15:11:49
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