All 26 European countries have approved Ukraine’s membership in the EU. On the other hand, the 50 billion package of aid and subsidies failed due to a veto by Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban. A next meeting of European leaders will take place in early 2024.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban abstained in favor of the vote on Ukraine’s membership in the European Union, which allowed 26 of the 27 European countries to approve the country’s future entry.
Indeed, according to the German daily die Welt, it would be the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who would have had the idea of asking Victor Orban to disappear during the vote: “the chancellor suggested to Viktor Orban to leave the meeting for a moment, while all the other countries of the EU would vote on the controversial question of membership. Orbán (…) stood up, slowly left the room and actually abstained from the vote.”
On the other hand, Victor Orban vetoed this aid package of 50 billion euros of loans and subsidies, which requires the unanimity of member states.
Ursula Von der Leyen will help Ukraine
Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, assured Friday that the EU would find a solution to help Ukraine. At the start of 2024, a new meeting of heads of state and government of the European Union should make it possible to release this aid. “Until then, we will use the time to make sure that whatever happens, we will have at this summit a working solution,” von der Leyen said in Brussels.
For his part, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said he was “extremely confident and optimistic” about the EU’s ability to keep its commitments to Ukraine “with financial means in the coming weeks”. “I am confident that the decision will be formalized,” he added.
EU enlargement
French President Emmanuel Macron wants the Hungarian Prime Minister to no longer block negotiations. “I expect from Viktor Orban in the coming months that, being respected, his legitimate interests being taken into account, he will behave like a European and not take our political progress hostage,” declared Emmanuel Macron at the end of the a European summit.
On Wednesday evening, on the eve of the European summit, the Commission released 10.2 of the approximately 30 billion euros promised to Hungary. This sum was deposited while waiting for Budapest to comply with EU rules on the rule of law in particular. Even as Viktor Orban prepared to derail EU support for Ukraine by vetoing it.
During a press conference this Friday after the European summit, Emmanuel Macron declared that the EU was still “very far from enlargement” to Ukraine and that this would require a reform of its operating rules. , while he was questioned about the concerns of European farmers, recalling his attachment to “European agricultural sovereignty”.
