Accession negotiations with Ukraine. Analyst: the EU summit is a complete failure for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

As Rudolf Berkes, an analyst at the Political Capital Institute, assessed in an interview with the “Nepszava” daily, “the European Union summit in Brussels, at which it was decided to start accession negotiations with Ukraine, turned out to be a complete failure for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who did not achieve any of the previously announced goals.” .

According to him, it was a failure that Orbán left the hall during the vote on starting accession negotiations with Ukrainewhile he gained nothing by vetoing further EU financial aid for Kiev.

– Orban, despite vocal opposition and drawing red lines, indirectly supported the decision that was agreed by the other 26 countries. Leaving the hall had only an internal political message, (Prime Minister Hungarian – ed.) tried to protect his own decision from public opinion – said the analyst.

– Another thing is that Ukraine’s accession to the EU may take 10-15 years, and the Hungarian government will have many opportunities to make it difficult, Berkes added.

As the analyst noted, national consultations are currently underway in Hungary. The government asked citizens for their opinion, among others: regarding policy towards Ukraine. – Such consultations mainly serve to give the government’s decisions an appearance of legitimacy – said a Political Capital analyst, adding that the government will be able to use their results in future negotiations at the EU forum.

– The Hungarian government’s veto policy (in relation to further financial aid for Kiev – ed.) is a way to force concessions – Berkes noted. – European Commission However, it did not release part of the EU funds for this reason, but because it managed to implement judicial reforms, he added.

Thursday The European Council decided during its meeting in Brussels on starting accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Prime Minister Orban, who opposed it, did not take part in the vote. – I didn’t want to take part in this bad decision, so I preferred to leave the room – he explained on Friday in a morning interview. He also noted that, if necessary, Budapest will have many opportunities to veto Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

Read more: Scholz on the background of the vote on Ukraine and the “proposals” for Orban. “He said he would like to use it”

– In this way, Hungary did not prevent the decision from being made, but it does not take responsibility for this wrong decision – explained the head of the prime minister’s political cabinet, Balazs Orban. – We still do not support or agree with the opening of negotiations – he added.

However, Hungary blocked the adoption of new EU budget support for Ukraine in the amount of EUR 50 billion. EU heads of state and government will most likely return to this issue early next year.