Orban asks European Council not to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to EU

Politico reported the information.

In the letter, Orban calls on Michel to remove the decision to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU from the agenda of the December summit. The politician points out that the decision on the possibility of starting negotiations is not objective.

EU ambassadors are meeting today to discuss the draft conclusions for the summit, which still contains the key phrase, "The European Council decides to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and with Moldova." An EU official in Brussels who participated in the talks told Politico that the conclusions remained unchanged because "26 out of the 27 countries still want to open accession negotiations."

Michel will cut short his trip to Beijing for the EU-China summit and will return after the first day of meetings on Thursday to continue his discussions with leaders on how to move forward.

Speaking to the outlet, one European diplomat called Orban's threat political theater and denied that the Hungarian prime minister was dictating the agenda to the other 26 countries.

"Another day, another letter from Budapest. So what's new?" he said.

On the positive side, Orban's letter does not contain two points that he raised in his previous letter to Michel.

"If you compare the two letters, you’ll notice that he no longer mentions opposition to security guarantees for Ukraine, and to the Russia sanctions," another official said.

• On November 8, the European Commission recommended starting the process of negotiating Ukraine's accession to the EU.
• Last week, Orban said that negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU are not in Hungary's interests and therefore should not be put on the agenda.