Hungary is pressing for negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (EU) not to be put on the agenda at the bloc’s summit, which will be held next week in Brussels.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (5), Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó claimed that Ukraine does not meet the conditions to join the EU.
“Hungary’s position regarding Ukraine’s accession to the European Union is well thought out and well-founded, there is no blackmail or even any ‘game’ in it,” Szijjártó wrote.
“We still do not see – neither the Hungarian people, nor the Hungarian Parliament, nor the Hungarian government – why a hasty start of negotiations with Ukraine would be good for Europe. Ukraine is simply very far from presenting conditions for accession or even negotiations on it, and it would be more opportune to develop a strategic partnership first,” said the minister.
Following the example of what the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, had done in a letter sent to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, Szijjártó asked that the proposal to start negotiations with Ukraine for accession be removed from the agenda of this week’s summit next.
This Wednesday (6), Orbán’s party presented a resolution in the Hungarian Parliament asking the government not to support the start of negotiations on Ukrainian accession – remembering that, with Hungarian resistance, today there are no conditions for Kiev join the bloc: the accession of new member countries to the EU requires unanimity among those that are already members.
In November, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recommended opening negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership, arguing that Kiev has already implemented 90% of the reforms demanded by the bloc.
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