"The question of Ukraine's accession to the European Union is certainly not a foregone conclusion. What we know is that there is no unity within the EU on the issue - that unity has dissipated," the Hungarian PM's political director told Kossuth Radio. Balazs Orban pointed out that Hungary clearly indicated at the EU summit that it does not agree with Ukraine membership, and that under the current conditions it considers the opening of accession negotiations to be misguided, premature, unjustified and unprepared.
According to the political director's calculations, there are at least 75 relevant points requiring unanimous decisions, therefore the process cannot progress, without Hungary's approval, and in the end the Hungarian Parliament will also have a final say.
We expressed our disagreement and left it to the 26 member states to take this decision.
The EU founding treaty is crystal clear, stating that EU enlargement requires the consent of member states, there's no way around it, and Hungary's rights within the bloc can only be restricted to a certain extent by procedural rules.
"That didn't even come up," he continued, "but rather, discussions centered on the seven conditions the EU had previously set as a prerequisite for granting candidate status thus far, of which Ukraine had fulfilled only four, according to the European Commission's own assessment, while Hungary sees none of them as having been fulfilled."
Under such circumstances, Balazs Orban called it untimely to move accession negotiations forward to the next phase.
He also said that Hungary's baseline position on the EU budget is that there is no need to amend the EU budget. "All issues can be addressed outside the budget or by an internal reshuffling within the existing budget. This is true for Ukraine's membership, as well as for the extra funding needed to cover the increased interest costs," he said, adding that despite this, several member states and certain EU institutions, such as European Commission leaders, believe that budget changes are needed.
Hungary is open to negotiations on this, but we have conditions.
Among these, he said that on the one hand, the Hungarian people's money cannot be given to Ukraine, and on the other, a strategic debate on financing Ukraine must be held, as the current strategy has failed. "And Hungary's contribution to the increased interest charges on the reconstruction fund resources should not even be considered until Hungary has access to the EU funds it is entitled to," he stressed. Hungary will not finance such additional burdens when Brussels is withholding funds for political reasons.
