Ukraine needs Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, to agree in order to benefit from the EU leaders’ summit on Thursday.
He has strongly refused to let Kyiv join the EU and ignored its requests for help.
“We are the ones who speak common sense in Europe,” he said to the Hungarian government before the summit.
He said that Kyiv won’t be able to join the EU because of war, corruption, a large farming industry, and how they mistreat the Hungarian people living there.
Ukraine is being asked to start talking officially with the EU, and the EU plans to give Ukraine €54bn to help its economy until 2024, as well as €24bn in military assistance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is having a tough week, and Hungarian objections are making it even worse. He went to Washington to ask for $61 billion in military funding from the US, but the Republican lawmakers said no.
The Ukrainian leader said that if there is no good news from Brussels, it means Putin stopped the decision. He accused Budapest of causing problems.
Budapest might stop Kyiv from getting what it wants, even though other EU countries support Ukraine. Poland’s new leader, Donald Tusk, said it’s not okay to ignore Ukraine.
However, as EU leaders started coming to Brussels late on Wednesday, it looked like a compromise might be possible.
The EU’s Commission said they are releasing around €10. 2bn out of €30bn of EU funds for Hungary. This money was stopped because Hungary was not following the rules of law.
Many people think that releasing the money is a way to make Mr Orban less stubborn, but officials in Brussels say they were not forced to do it. And they can mention a law in Hungary that allows Hungarian judges to ask the European Court for help.
Brussels wanted many changes to the criminal code and this was one of them.
Most other leaders in the EU strongly support Kyiv. Slovakia’s leader Robert Fico stopped giving military help to Ukraine. But he said he will help Ukraine start talking about joining the European Union.
A few hours after President Zelensky left Washington DC without getting US aid, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that Ukraine needs our help to be strong now and in the future when negotiating peace.
MrZelensky really wants things to go well at the EU summit and tried to sound positive during his visit to Norway: “We have been very helpful. ” We did everything and followed the European Union’s suggestions.
The European Commission has said that six out of the seven things needed to start formal talks to join the EU have now been done.
Budapest disagrees with this and says Brussels is making it easier for Kyiv. President Zelensky met with Viktor Orban in Argentina on Sunday and they had a serious talk. Later, Ukraine’s president said it was an honest conversation.
The Ukrainian parliament passed a law last week to make people in Budapest feel better. The law gives Hungarians and other minorities the right to study in their own language.
Ukraine made a new law to fight corruption, which the EU asked for. This law takes away some power from the Orban government.
No one in Brussels thinks that Ukraine is ready to join the European Union right away. The EU 27 starting membership talks shows they are standing together in support.
Orban said to the French magazine Le Point that he doesn’t exactly have a veto power. Let’s say I don’t help make a decision that I think is not good.
That seems like choosing not to vote. His government has already quietly agreed to punish Russia 11 times, but this is hardly ever mentioned by Hungary’s controlled, pro-government media.
On Wednesday, the Hungarian government’s top aide, Balazs Orban, said that Hungary’s money from the European Union and Ukraine’s money are not connected.
“However, if the EU says Ukraine’s funding should come from a revised EU budget, then the two issues are connected,” he told Bloomberg.
Viktor Orban is determined that Hungary cannot be forced to do something by threats, and that money problems should not be mixed up with important beliefs.
He, similar to Volodymyr Zelensky, says he did everything the Commission requested – a strange similarity at this summit.
But Ukraine has a lot more to lose. President Zelensky might not win the war with Russia, and Mr. Orban wants to have more power in Europe. He is now thinking about the European Parliamentary elections in June 2024. He wants nationalist parties to win.
President Zelensky’s best result would be to come back to Kyiv with an invitation to start talks to join a new group and a check for €78 billion in military and economic help.
The leader of Hungary wants the EU and Ukraine to agree on a “strategic partnership” at the summit. This would be a small step towards Ukraine joining the EU. Billions of euros in EU money that hasn’t been used yet.
“We are going to stay in Brussels,” he said to the Mandiner news site on Wednesday, “We are going to take over it. “