PM Orbán’s surprising decision about Ukraine’s EU accession explained

Viktor Orbán Ukraine EU accession
Photo: FB/Orbán

Hungary did not take part in the vote on starting Ukraine’s EU accession process, the prime minister’s policy director said in Brussels on Thursday, since it did not consider the country to be ready to start talks.

“Hungary’s position is clear,” Balázs Orbán told Hungarian journalists during the European Union summit, noting that it did not consider Ukraine to be ready, and this is why it “suggested that negotiations should not begin”.

But 26 EU member states “thought differently”, he said.

“So after the talks, Hungary decided to leave the room and did not take part in the vote. Hence, Hungary did not prevent the decision from being taken, but it won’t take responsibility for this erroneous decision,” he said.

The PM’s policy director said a unanimous decision was needed for specific negotiations to go ahead, and as this decision had not come about, it would be postponed.

He said the European Council had made a decision in principle, but member states must thereafter give unanimous consent. This, he said, also applied to concrete negotiation packages, and in the following years, Ukraine’s accession must be supported at least 70 times through unanimous decision-making.

“We still do not agree with starting negotiations, so we’ll continue to maintain the Hungarian position,” he added.

Read also:

  • Transcarpathian Hungarians ask PM Orbán to stop obstructing Ukraine in open letter – Read more HERE
  • PM Orbán: Hungary not to yield to any pressure on Ukraine accession

Orbán: Ukraine’s EU membership ‘bad decision’

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that the European Union membership “is a bad decision which Hungary wants no part in”, in a video published on Facebook on Thursday. In the video recorded in the break of the EU summit in Brussels, Orbán said Hungary’s stance was that Ukraine was not ready to start accession talks with the EU.

“The decision to start talks with Ukraine in these circumstances is senseless, irrational and wrong, and Hungary will not change its stance,” he said. At the same time, “the other 26 states insisted on making that decision. Hungary decided that … they should go their own way,” he said. Hungary stayed away from the decision-making, he said. The talks will resume with amendments of the budget, he added.

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