By Krisztina Than and Gabriela Baczynska
BUDAPEST/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hungary reaffirmed its opposition on Wednesday to plans to advance Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union, setting the stage for a clash at an EU leaders’ summit this week.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who boasts of strong ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the national parliament that fast-track accession to the EU for neighbouring Ukraine would not serve the interests of Hungary or the EU.
“Considering the numbers, economic analyses and taking it seriously that talks (with Ukraine) would aim to grant membership … then we must say that this thought at the moment is absurd, ridiculous and not serious,” Orban said.
His comments contrasted sharply with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who urged the 27-member bloc to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February last year.
“Besides our political support, Ukraine also needs our sustained financial support,” von der Leyen told the European parliament.
“We must give Ukraine what it needs to be strong today so that it can be stronger tomorrow at the table when it is negotiating a long-lasting and just peace for Ukraine.”
Orban has threatened to veto proposals to allow Kyiv to start accession talks and to receive substantial financial and military aid from the EU budget.
Kyiv wants to join the EU and build alliances with the West as it distances itself further from Moscow, while 50 billion euros ($54 billion) of economic support and 20 billion euros for Ukraine’s military would be vital as its concerns about the future of Western military aid grow.
DISPUTE
The European Commission, the EU executive, has proposed that this week’s summit take a decision to start EU membership talks with Ukraine once it meets four outstanding conditions set out previously. It has suggested this could happen in March.
Von der Leyen said laws Ukraine passed last week — including on national minorities, an issue raised by Hungary — cleared three of the remaining tasks, meaning only one was missing: a new lobbying law to rein in oligarchs.
Orban, who says the rights of tens of thousands of his ethnic kin living in western Ukraine are being denied, disputed this interpretation.
“There are three areas where even according to the Commission itself, conditions have not been met: corruption, action against oligarchs and the issue of minorities,” Orban said.
Budapest is studying the new law passed by Ukraine on minorities, but it will not guarantee the same rights that Hungarians living in Ukraine enjoyed until 2015, he said.
Orban said the potential consequences of Ukraine’s EU membership on the bloc’s budget had not been assessed, and cited German estimates that full-fledged membership would bring 190 billion euros of extra spending from the EU’s seven-year budget.
The Commission is meanwhile expected to unlock Hungary’s access to 10 billion euros this week that had previously been frozen over concerns Budapest had damaged democratic checks and balances in the country.
($1 = 0.9273 euros)
(Writing by Keith Weir, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
