There is no such thing as a veto, the EU’s basic treaty does not recognize this concept, PM Viktor Orban emphasized in his regular radio interview this morning. Speaking to Hungary’s public Kossuth Radio, Hungary's prime minister admitted that it is still too early to discuss philosophical issues, but that it is necessary to talk about them. He said the only scenario is that certain decisions require the agreement of all member states. Among them, there will be some that Hungary does not support, and one of these is Ukraine’s EU accession.
The admission of Ukraine as a candidate country is not in Hungary’s national interest, so this issue will not be put on the agenda, Mr Orban confirmed. He said the way to preserve the EU’s unity is to avoide putting divisive issues on the agenda in the first place.
There are many contentious issues regarding Ukraine
Hungary’s prime minister described Ukraine’s EU accession as ill-prepared. The Commission must understand that it is its fault, so it should only revisit this issue once it has discussed it with the member states.
We are not against the decisions, we just disagree with the other member states,
– PM Orban said, in connection with his letter to Charles Michel. "This issue bears relevance in terms national independence," he added.
– If we agree, then we’ll have a common position in the EU. If we don’t, we don’t. We must not be forced into a state where we feel remorse because we disagree on something, Mr Orban said.
PM Orban highlighted that the size of Ukraine’s territory at the moment is unspecified, adding that there are no studies on the inclusion of Ukraine’s agriculture either, and that we also don’t know the exact size of the country’s population is.
Ukrainian agriculture would destroy Hungary’s agriculture, according to Hungarian farmers, PM Orban said, adding that he had also already discussed this issue with farmers’ representatives.
– We also have no information on how much money Ukraine would receive, from where and from whom, Mr Orban stressed. So long as there questions are unanswered, there is no rationale in initiating accession talks. He recalled that the EU had already made this mistake once, with Türkiye, which is also a candidate country, but no one knows how to bring it closer to the EU.