EU leaders face ‘super summit’ with Orbán threatening to block support for Ukraine

2023-12-13 23:23:14

All eyes are on Viktor Orbán. The Prime Minister of Hungary threatens to block the ‘super summit’ that EU leaders have had marked in red on the calendar for many months. The 2023 European Council was the moment in which they intended to give a boost to Ukraine, after almost two years of war, with the opening of negotiations for accession to the club, which requires the unanimity of the current members. It is a symbolic gesture, there would still be a lot of work to do for years for an expansion that the most optimistic place in 2030; but the 27 wanted to send a clear message of support to kyiv. In recent weeks, the ultranationalist leader has once again heated up the meeting, to which he arrives determined to block the opening of negotiations, a step that Volodymyr Zelensky has been begging for for more than a year.

“It is evident that the European Commission’s proposal on Ukraine’s accession to the EU is unfounded and poorly prepared,” said Orbán about the progress report prepared by the community government and that it happens to be the responsibility of the Hungarian Commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi, who is responsible for the Neighborhood portfolio. “We would like the European Council to follow the recommendations that we have made,” Várhelyi said in a press conference this Tuesday in response to the veto posed by his leader.