Bloomberg: Hungarian government to knock Ukraine's accession off EU agenda

There are expectations that on this occasion the European Council can and must decide on starting accession negotiations with Ukraine. In view of the current level of political and technical preparations, these expectations are unfounded,

according to Orbán’s letter to European Council President Charles Michel dated Monday and seen by Bloomberg.

Politico has even published the letter - click here to read it.

According to Bloomberg, the move only worsens the Hungarian government's image in the EU, which has not been helped by the Budapest cabinet's energy deals with Russia, vetoing EU aid to Ukraine and delaying NATO enlargement.

This is the second attempt by Orbán to urge the European Council leader to take support for Ukraine off the agenda: earlier, in a letter to Michel, he made the development of an EU strategy for Ukraine conditional on a vote on the 12th sanctions package and the disbursement of funds promised to Kyiv.

Unanimous support from all 27 EU countries is needed to start membership negotiations. Orbán's letter also criticises the talks on the new EU budget, saying the focus is on the European Commission's "unfounded, unbalanced and unrealistic proposal". Other European countries have joined Budapest in calling on Brussels to find more spending room and savings within the current budget.

Several EU diplomats were already shocked last week to find out that the next EU summit might end in disaster due to vetoes from Hungary.

Cover photo: EU