European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels approved the European Commission’s recommendation to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova.
The European Council decided to start EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The opening of negotiations requires the consent of all EU leaders, including Hungary, which, as is known, until recently declared opposition to such a decision. Given the position of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, it seems unlikely that a decision to open negotiations will be made. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky did not go to the Brussels summit. But there is still a historical solution for Ukraine. How is this achieved?
Long bidding
On Thursday morning, the main leaders of the EU – the President of the European Council, the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany – gathered for a working breakfast with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to unblock the decision on Ukraine .
After this meeting, Orban said that he was not against Ukraine joining the EU, but insisted on “following the procedures.”
“(There are) prerequisites. Once the candidates are fulfilled, let’s start negotiations on the membership. But it was not fulfilled even according to the assessment of the commission. So we are not in a position to start negotiations,” Orbán said.
“The enlargement is not a theoretical issue. It is a legally based process with seven conditions. Even according to the European Commission, three of the seven conditions have not been fulfilled (by Kiev), so now there is no reason to negotiate the membership of Ukraine ,” he repeated.
As a result, EU leaders decided to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova in the absence of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which made it possible to avoid his veto.
Some representatives of the European Council say that Orban deliberately left the meeting during the vote on the decision on Ukraine.
“The main thing is that no one opposed this decision. So, the European Union agreed with the decision to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia,” explained an official from the structure of the EU.
“Legally, it is fully in accordance with the rules. Yes, we made a decision without the presence of Orbán, but not behind his back. He knew that this decision would be voted on and leave the room,” said a representative of the group by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
All other states voted in favor of starting negotiations with Ukraine, so there were 26 votes in favor and one abstention.
Orban himself said that he abstained from voting for the start of negotiations on the accession of Ukraine to the EU, but his attitude has not changed.
“The decision to start negotiations with Ukraine is completely meaningless, illogical and wrong,” he said.
At the same time, Orban explained, after almost eight hours of discussion, the remaining 26 EU member states insisted on supporting the negotiations with Ukraine and decided to “go their own way.”
“Hungary does not want to be part of this very bad decision,” he added.
what next
The decision of EU leaders means that the European Commission will start preparing technical aspects of membership negotiations with Ukraine (the so-called negotiating framework) without further delay. It can be approved at the next EU summit in the spring of 2024 if it is recognized that Ukraine has fulfilled all the previous criteria of the European Commission.
President Vladimir Zelensky called the European Union’s decision to open negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU a victory for all of Europe.
But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte explained before the start of the summit that even if accession negotiations start immediately, Ukraine will need years to become an EU member.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.