Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has no reason to prevent Ukraine from joining the EU.
Most EU member states are in favor of starting talks at this week’s EU summit on Ukraine’s entry into the bloc and reaching an agreement on the allocation of funds to further support Kyiv in the fight against the Russian invasion.
However, Hungary blocks both of these steps.
Zelenskyy, who is on a visit to Norway to hold talks with the leaders of the Scandinavian countries on increasing aid to Ukraine, also stated that military operations usually slow down in winter.
On Wednesday, the European Commission and official Budapest reiterated their differences on the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
The European Commission reminded Budapest that it had not yet taken the final step needed to unlock billions of euros frozen over concerns that Orban had damaged his country’s democratic institutions.
Hungary, an EU member since 2004, later published plans for proposed judicial reforms. The European Commission was expected to release the funds later in the day, an EU official said.
Orban has said he will block Kyiv’s attempt to open EU accession talks, citing corruption and rights abuses for tens of thousands of ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine.
The Hungarian Prime Minister said in parliament that starting negotiations with Ukraine is an idea that “is currently absurd, ridiculous and not serious”.
His comments contrasted sharply with the statements of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the European Parliament.
“We must give Ukraine what it needs to be strong today. So it can be stronger tomorrow at the table when it is negotiating a long lasting and just peace,” von der Leyen said.
Orban has threatened to veto proposals that would allow Kyiv to begin EU accession negotiations and receive significant financial and military assistance from the EU budget.
Orban also said that the potential consequences of Ukraine’s EU membership for the bloc’s budget would be severe.
Some leaders of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s Transcarpathian region opposed Orban’s statements.
“We represent the face of the Hungarian community, which like all Ukrainian citizens, is fighting for European values,” said Uzhgorod University lecturer Fedor Sandor, one of the most prominent representatives of the ethnic Hungarian community in Ukraine, reports Reuters.
He recalled that about 400 ethnic Hungarians serve in the Ukrainian armed forces, fighting against Russian troops. Sandor himself volunteered to fight at the very beginning of the Ukraine war.
Hungarian civic organizations and some city leaders sent shipments of drones, warm clothing and other equipment worth about $3 million, Sandor added.
EU leaders begin meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to first discuss EU membership bids from countries including Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova.
The European Commission proposed to this week’s summit that they decide to begin negotiations on accession to the EU with Ukraine. Von der Leyen said the laws Ukraine passed last week, including on national minorities – an issue raised by Hungary – address three of the four remaining issues, i.e. One thing is missing: a new lobbying law aimed at reining in oligarchs.
