Between the “cup of coffee” policy The release of 10.2 billion euros of European Union funds to Hungary opened the way for discussions about Ukraine’s accession to the Union, but these are long and arduous discussions that may continue for years.
After 3 hours of deadlocked discussions between the leaders of the European Union regarding Ukraine's accessionTo him, he invited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to drink a cup of... Coffee, saying: "Are youhaving some coffee outside the room perhaps?".
Grab a coffee outside the room, perhaps.
The European Union consensus law stipulates the necessity of voting unanimously on a number of issues that the member states of the Union consider sensitive, including: the common foreign and security policy, membership of the Union, the harmonization of national legislation relating to taxation and in the field of social security, the financial affairs of the Union, and certain provisions in The field of justice, internal affairs, etc.
Under unanimous voting, abstention does not prevent a decision from being taken.
In turn, after the European Union leaders succeeded in taking the decision to open talks on Ukraine's accession to the Union in his absence, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban wrote on his official Facebook account: “Hungary does not want to be part of this bad decision!”
Viktor Orban then went out to the media to confirm that the discussions were “long and difficult,” and said: “I spent 8 hours trying to convince them not to do that, and that Ukraine is not ready to be a member of the European Union, and that this decision came at the wrong time.” The situation is not yet ripe for that. However, one of their arguments was that they are 26 and I am alone.”
Orban stressed that the final say on Ukraine's membership in the European Union will be for the national parliaments, which are 27 parliaments, including the Hungarian Parliament. He said that it will take a long time for that decision to reach the parliaments, "and Hungary will be able to prevent Ukraine's accession to the European Union 75 times again." "I didn't want Hungary to feel guilty about this bad decision, and I said I didn't want to be part of it, and that's how I left the room."
However, what is interesting in a related context is the European Commission’s decision, on December 13, one day before the negotiations to open the discussion on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, to release 10.2 billion euros from the Union’s funds allocated to Hungary.
The rationale for making the decision stated that Hungary “did not meet the conditions for horizontal empowerment stipulated in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, due to a number of concerns, including judicial concerns.” In December 2022, the Commission found that the country had “taken measures that enable the Commission to consider that the horizontal enabling condition of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights has been met, in particular with regard to the independence of the judiciary”, meaning that €10.2 billion in funding had become available. Hungary can claim it.
For their part, European Union leaders and diplomats denied that there was any quid pro quo relationship between Orban leaving the meeting room at the crucial moment and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, turning a blind eye to “the decline in the rule of law and media freedoms.” In Hungary, the Commission released 10.2 billion euros, after “Hungary fulfilled the necessary measures.” According to the Commission’s statement, which insisted that this step be completely independent of Orban’s threats to obstruct Ukraine’s accession process.
But EU leaders, at the same time, acknowledge that they have overcome the initial hurdle on Ukraine's path to EU membership, but Orban's retreat does not guarantee that Kiev will be allowed to join the club, and Hungary can still intervene in the remaining steps that again require consensus. Perhaps then you will have to think about something other than “a cup of coffee.”
Ukrainian forces fire long-range missiles at the city of Mariupol
The Ukrainian Armed Forces fired 3 long-range missiles towards the city of Mariupol in the Donetsk People's Republic after midnight last night.
This came according to what was reported by the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of Cases Related to War Crimes in Ukraine, where the center’s statement stated: “After midnight At night, bombing was recorded from Ukrainian armed formations from the northwest towards the Mariupol point, where the bombing was carried out with three long-range missiles.
The last time the Ukrainian armed forces bombed the city of Mariupol was last May.
Russian forcesand units of theDonetsk People's Republic have surrounded The city on March 7 of last year, and by April 21, almost the entire city was liberated, while more than two thousand Ukrainian soldiers and militants from the “Azov” regiment were surrounded, and in mid-May they began to surrender, and the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the complete liberation of the city on May 20.
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