© AFP
The European summit in Brussels, where whether or not to start accession talks with Ukraine and granting a large financial support package to Kiev are top of the agenda, will start on Thursday half an hour later than planned. The reason? President Charles Michel has scheduled another meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 10:17 AM
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also join the emergency meeting.
At the summit, all eyes are on Orban, who stands his ground and says he does not want to hear about starting accession negotiations with Ukraine. As for financial support for Kiev, he seemed to show some openness on Wednesday. “I am willing to make financial agreements on financial issues,” he said in an interview.
On the eve of the summit, the European Commission announced that it wants to release more than 10 billion euros in blocked cohesion funds for Hungary. The timing is of course striking, but according to the Commission, Budapest has taken the requested measures to improve the independence of the judiciary. More than 20 billion euros in European money for Hungary remains blocked.
Nevertheless, a majority of the European Parliament calls for not to transfer a cent to Hungary. “Ransom” is what the released funds are called in the hemisphere. The question remains whether the Commission’s recommendation and the last-minute consultation with Michel, Macron, Scholz and Von der Leyen will be able to change Orban’s mind. It is also not yet clear whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will make a surprise visit to the summit.
In any case, the commitment from the top is extremely high. The lack of an agreement to transfer additional financial support to Ukraine and certainly a refusal to start accession talks would reflect particularly negatively on the image of the European Union. Not to mention the impact on the morale of the Ukrainians in their war with Russia.