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11 months ago
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Hungary’s potential veto over financial aid to Ukraine and opening accession talks with Kyiv at the EU summit later this week will be a ‘failure of the entire bloc, not only of one European leader’, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said in an interview.
Stefanishyna spoke to reporters, including Euractiv, on Monday (11 December) at the Ukrainian Mission to the EU, days before a decisive EU summit where the future of enlargement, including Ukraine, is high on the agenda.
“We have to make the political decision now, in December – it’s extremely emotional on the Hungarian side, but by the end of the day, it is a decision of 27 [EU member states], and it is either taken or not, either there is a consensus or veto,” Stefanishyna said.
“A failure of the summit would be a failure of the entire European Union,” she told reporters.
International promises to stand with her country were “100 per cent” being tested, Stefanishyna said, adding that the results would affect the credibility of the EU’s enlargement process and ongoing aid discussions in Washington.
“Those who are advocating for decisions not to be taken in the December summit clearly understand that it would affect decisions to be taken in the United States,” she warned, with her comments coming amid concerns Europe and America’s locked financial support could leave Ukraine facing military defeat.
All eyes on Orbán
The gathering of EU leaders risks a double blow to Ukraine aid as EU member states are locked in disputes over €50 billion in financial support to Kyiv and the political decision to start accession talks.
Hungary, meanwhile, has pledged to thwart the EU membership talks, which it said are running against national interest, and the €100 billion increase to the bloc’s budget, half of which is earmarked for Ukraine aid.
The EU’s Ukraine aid package is designed to help pay wages, pensions and certain basic public services.
Hungary’s Orbán doubles down on blocking Ukraine accession talks
Ukraine’s EU membership currently does not coincide with Hungary’s national interests and the EU should propose a “strategic partnership” with Ukraine before starting accession talks with the war-torn country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday (1 December).
Earlier in June, Orbán had said it was not “acceptable” that the European Commission was blocking recovery funds to Hungary while advocating to give an additional €50 billion to Kyiv, prompting the bloc to look into ‘Plan B’ options by the EU26.
Asked about the consequences of not finding a breakthrough at the upcoming summit, Stefanishyna said that Ukraine had received no assurances that the €50 billion would be provided in one form or another.
“In the case of no decision on the €50 billion, there could be an interim solution,” Stefanishyna said, but it would leave Ukraine on “the edge of survival with zero [financial] predictability” for the following year
Critics have accused Orbán of attempting to blackmail the EU with Ukraine aid into releasing frozen EU funds. But while the EU is expected to release €10 billion Brussels froze over corruption and rule of law concerns on Tuesday (12 December), it is unclear what other demands Hungary might tie to greenlighting the EU summit decisions.
“It’s very legitimate that a member state could put a sort of conditions for discussion, (…) but the issue has become extremely emotional for Hungary,” Stefanishyna said, in a veiled criticism of the bloc’s decision-making requirement that foresees unanimity.
“The EU is not only Hungary, it a question of political will” and the reasons behind Budapest’s veto have little to do with Ukraine itself and more with Orbán’s internal politics, she said.
Asked about Hungary’s motives, Stefanishyna said Budapest has been trying to create a ‘false narrative’ around her country.
“This is exactly how Hungary is trying to frame Ukraine: [President] Zelenskyy is not talking [to Orbán] in the right way, (…) Ukraine is doing things in the wrong way, acting in the wrong way, fighting in her wrong way – this has been the general light, Hungary presenting us as ‘bad Ukrainians'”, she said.
Enlargement in jeopardy
In November, the European Commission recommended opening negotiations with Ukraine, but its report said only four of its seven recommendations had been fully fulfilled. The remaining reforms, which Ukraine’s parliament is currently voting on, will see another progress assessment in March 2024.
Asked by Euractiv about whether she fears this would open the door for the EU’s accession talks decision to be kicked down the road until March next year, Stefanishyna said:
“If you will show me any country, that joined the EU over the last 30 years with the report saying everything was delivered 100%, then I will recognise that probably you would have not delivered.”
“I can hardly imagine any other country having the progress Ukraine managed to show over all the years because no other country was under such pressing circumstances,” she added.
“It’s a merit-based process – we did what was necessary to make the decision. It’s up to EU leaders to now do what they promised. It is in the interest of all of Europe,” Stefanishyna said, adding that countries once reluctant, such as Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, have now “taken the project out of the fridge.”
Asked about the consequences should the summit fail to produce a decision on accession talks, Stefanishyna said it would be a decision “which Europe we will see the next day”.
According to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, failure of a decision at this week’s summit would also cause shock waves beyond Ukraine and “affect the entire enlargement process, which will be frozen again”, including in the Western Balkans.
She said these countries have “been in the waiting room for ages,” adding that Ukraine had maintained contact with them and that there is no spirit of “competition.”
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
English (US)