The Brief – Accommodation over awkwardness

The history of EU integration is littered with examples of leaders using creative thinking to work around the bloc’s awkward members when unanimity is urgently needed to move ahead. 

On Thursday, they came up with a new innovation, ‘constructive abstention’, to push ahead with Ukraine’s EU membership plans.  

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán left the room for a coffee break, knowing the 26 leaders left behind would use his absence to take a vote to approve EU membership talks for Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. 

Orbán “was momentarily absent from the room in a pre-agreed and constructive manner”, one EU official confirmed. 

The Hungarian premier got his own back a few hours later by blocking plans for a €50 billion EU aid package for Ukraine and, by Friday morning, was telling the world that Hungary’s parliament would still be able to block Ukraine’s EU membership when, years down the line, accession talks are concluded. 

After weeks of Hungarian threats to veto Ukraine’s EU membership talks, the result is a victory for both Hungary and the EU26.

The European Commission quietly announced on the eve of the summit that it would release €10.4 billion in EU funds to Budapest, a decision described as “catastrophical” by Petri Sarvamaa, the centre-right EPP’s budget spokesperson.

The EU, meanwhile, has been able to take a huge step towards Ukraine’s integration and deal a severe political blow to Russia.

The bloc has become increasingly nimble in working out off-budget ways to raise and disburse finance – the €700 billion post-pandemic recovery fund and the European Stability Mechanism to provide bailouts being obvious examples.

If the EU26 are determined to provide the financial and military support that Kyiv needs, they will find a way to do it. 

“With 26 countries we agree. There is no agreement from Hungary at the moment, but I am very confident for next year,” was the verdict of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at his last EU summit. 

As tactics go, Orbán’s ‘leave the room’ is far less obstructive than France’s ‘empty chair’ policy when discussing reform of agricultural subsidies or David Cameron’s ‘veto’ – which proved to be nothing of the sort – of the EU’s fiscal compact treaty in 2011 which enshrined limits on public debts.

There is no guarantee that Ukraine – or, for that matter, Georgia and Moldova, will join the EU any time soon. But by allowing the EU26 to press ahead, Orbán has, albeit briefly, put accommodation ahead of awkwardness. 

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The Roundup

Hungary’s  Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked on Friday  €50 billion in EU financial aid for Ukraine, throwing into doubt Europe’s ongoing support after the bloc’s leaders side-stepped his opposition to agree to open accession talks with Kyiv.

EU leaders have postponed the agreement to top-up the European Peace Facility (EPF) used to reimburse member states for their donations to Ukraine, as some countries wish to change the modalities of the fund.

Vladimir Putin’s comment that the entire Black Sea coast used to be Russian betrays “imperial ambitions at the expense of several countries which are now in the EU” and should put Europe on its guard, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said on Friday.

European Union countries agreed on a 12th package of sanctions against Russia, the European Council said on Thursday, meaning that a phased ban on Russian diamond imports among other measures will come into effect from 1 January.

The Council and the European Parliament agreed on revising safe and quality standards for substances of human origin (SoHO) and setting new safety rules to ensure the quality of transplants and the EU’s autonomy.

Germany is rapidly expanding its fibre optic and mobile network rollout, according to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport on Thursday, but telecom operators are concerned about possible bottleneck.

Member states want the interim regulation on online child sexual abuse material to be extended until 3 August 2027, according to a document shared with EU ambassadors, seen by Euractiv.

If you are looking for more policy news, don’t miss this week’s Economy Brief, Agrifood Brief, and the Tech Brief.

Look out for…

• Environment Council on Monday.
• Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (Energy) on Tuesday.
• Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni participates in virtual G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting on Tuesday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]