Hungarian Prime Minister asks European Council President not to submit decision on Ukraine to EU summit
Pravda Ukraine
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán allegedly wrote another letter to Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, in which he asked Michel not to put issues related to Ukraine on the agenda of the EU summit in mid-December.
Source: European Pravda; Radio Liberty with reference to a copy of the letter
Details: In the letter, Viktor Orbán allegedly calls the expectations that EU leaders will approve the decision to start accession talks with Ukraine and review the EU’s medium-term budget of €50 billion for Kyiv “unreasonable”.
The Hungarian prime minister criticises the European Commission’s recommendation to negotiate with Ukraine as “the end of the EU’s enlargement policy as an objective value-based tool” and complains of “the lack of opportunity to discuss this in advance.”
He also criticises the proposal of the European Commission for €50 billion funding for Ukraine, saying it is “unreasonable, unbalanced and unrealistic”, calling for discussions in light of “political and financial realities in the member states”, which requires “additional effort and time”.
“I respectfully urge you not to invite the European Council to decide on these issues in December, as the obvious lack of consensus will inevitably lead to failure. The European Council must avoid this counterproductive scenario to preserve unity, our most important asset,” Orbán concluded.
European Pravda asked the Office of the Chairman of the European Council for a comment.
The Hungarian Prime Minister has written another letter to the European Council president, which threatened to block EU assistance to Ukraine and its movement towards EU membership if EU leaders do not agree to reconsider their entire strategy of supporting Kyiv.
Earlier on Monday, Orbán publicly insisted that the EU summit in mid-December should not even consider the start of negotiations with Ukraine on joining the European Union.
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