BUDAPEST, Nov. 10 ( Reuters ) Prime Minister Viktor Orban emphasized that Hungary’s” clear stance” on the matter when he said on state radio on Friday that the EU should not begin membership talks with Ukraine.
The leaders of the EU nations are expected to consider in the middle of December whether to take the Commission’s suggestion to request Kyiv to start membership talks as soon as it satisfies the requirements.
Hungary is seen as the main possible barrier, and any such determination would require the 27 members of the bloc to agree.
A debate between Brussels over trillions of dollars of EU cash suspended for Hungary over a rule-of-law problem, according to Nationalist Orban, who has been in power since 2010, cannot be in any way related to Hungary’s assistance for the EU accession talks.
Orban stated that” Membership speaks must not be started, this is the obvious Hungarian stance,” adding that Brussels owed Hungary money.
” I would like to make it very clear that a business deal is not relevant to the Hungarian dismissal of the beginning of talks with Ukraine regarding Union account… It cannot be connected to the distribution of money that Hungary is entitled to.
As Orban escapes Europe’s highest inflation levels, which peaked above 25 % in the first quarter, it faces economic stasis this year and a growing budget deficit. Shareholders have been closely observing Budapest’s discussions with Brussels regarding EU cash.
Orban has had a number of contentious disagreements with the EU and its professional branch, the European Commission, over Budapest’s tightening of state oversight of non-governmental organizations, academia, press, and judges, as well as an LGBT rights-harmed rules.
Krisztina Than provided the monitoring, and Jason Neely and Christina Fincher handled the processing.
The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles serve as our requirements.
