Arthur de Laborde, edited by Louis Verdoux / Photo credits: Ludovic MARIN / AFP
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7:15 a.m., December 15, 2023
This Thursday, December 14, the 27 member countries of the European Union announced the opening of accession negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova. To everyone’s surprise and despite multiple threats from him, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister, did not veto. But maybe it’s just a postponement.
It was a little theatrical twist live from Brussels. This Thursday, December 14, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, announced the opening of negotiations for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. A “victory for Ukraine and for all of Europe”, welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a “logical, fair and necessary response”, judged his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. But this process was threatened by a single man: Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who brandished the threat of a veto… Which he ultimately did not trigger.
The threat of a future veto?
The head of state was not even in the room on Thursday evening during the vote on the opening of accession negotiations, synonymous with an abstention. But before making this concession to other European countries, Viktor Orban obtained guarantees. A diplomatic source at Europe 1 declared that the accession process would be launched in two stages. First, the political decision which was announced today, that is to say, a strong signal sent by the Twenty-Seven to Ukraine. Subsequently, it will be about the concrete opening of negotiations on the technical level, which should take place next March.
But to pass this stage, a unanimous vote by member states is essential. Thus, the Hungarian Prime Minister will have a new right of veto to stop Ukraine’s accession process. This also means that Viktor Orban will have a new means of pressure which he should use to recover around twenty billion euros of European funds, after having obtained 10 through the European Commission this Wednesday. As a reminder, these 30 billion euros had been frozen by Brussels for breaches of the rule of law.
Furthermore, Viktor Orban remained inflexible on the financial aspect of support for Ukraine. He refuses to allow the Twenty-Seven to sign a check for 50 billion euros over four years in favor of kyiv, a decisive measure to maintain the war effort against Russia. On this point, Viktor Orban vetoed. The subject will come back to the table in two weeks during a new European summit in early January.