2023-12-14 10:08:01
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders began a two-day summit Thursday with efforts to keep intact their two key war promises to Ukraine: give it money and resources to confront the Russian invasion and maintain its hopes of that one day he will be able to join the wealthy bloc.
The threat to that commitment came not from abroad but from Hungary, an increasingly reluctant member. The image of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s warm handshake with Russian President Vladimir Putin two months ago still loomed over the summit.
Orban arrived promising to block plans by his 26 colleagues to officially declare that membership negotiations with Ukraine can begin and, more urgently, to deny Kiev 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in aid. finance that the country urgently needs to stay afloat.
“The European Union is about to make a terrible mistake and it must be stopped, even if all 26 want to do it and we are the only ones against it,” he said in statements published by his office on Thursday. “This is a mistake, we are destroying the European Union,”
The challenge came at a particularly difficult time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just after a trip to Washington in which his pleas for more help from the US Congress fell on deaf ears. He was then expected to travel to Brussels to defend his position there as well, although as of Thursday morning there was no official confirmation of his attendance.
“We certainly need to convey a sense of security in the budget, especially after the disappointment in the United States,” said a senior European diplomat who asked to remain anonymous because negotiations had not yet started.
The urgency to find a solution was equivalent to the possible blow to the EU’s credibility.
“Whatever it takes” was the EU’s motto in promising firm support, as leaders dressed in the yellow and blue colors of the Ukrainian flag and gave endless speeches that ended with the battle cry “Slava Ukraine!” (“Glory to Ukraine!”).
The EU, a group of 27 countries that still cherish their independence on strategic and foreign policy issues, operates unanimously on most issues related to Ukraine, and many now see Orban as Putin’s shadow at the summit, his tool to destroy EU support for Zelenskyy.
Orban’s differences with his EU counterparts are not new, ranging from disputes over pandemic recovery money to his waning respect for the Western democratic principles that are the essence of the EU. However, he is the longest-serving European leader and knows how to handle summits like few others. On several occasions he has achieved financial concessions at community meetings to shore up his battered economy.
That might come in handy in the coming days.
“We must be clear, this is not a bazaar (…) where you can exchange anything for another. “This is a decisive moment in which we must show that we continue to support Ukraine in full unity,” Alexander de Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium, said on the eve of the summit.
The EU relented on Wednesday and gave Hungary access to some 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in frozen funds after the Commission blocked a considerable amount of money over fears that Orban’s anti-democratic drift could jeopardize the block principles.
If Orban continues to refuse to support Ukraine, the senior official said, “we can also proceed with 26. It will be more complicated, but if we have to do it, we certainly will.”
Orban has denounced corruption in Ukraine and called for a “strategic conversation” about the country’s future in Europe as the war with Russia bogs down and concerns grow about what kind of government could be formed in Washington after next year’s U.S. elections.
Speaking to lawmakers in the Hungarian parliament, Orban said on Wednesday that the time “has not yet come” to bring Ukraine into the EU, and that a strategic alliance should first be established before membership talks with Kiev begin.
“We are interested in a prosperous and peaceful Ukraine, but that requires establishing peace as quickly as possible and a deliberate narrowing of the strategic alliance,” said Orban, who estimated that this process could take “a few years.”
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