Viktor Orbán both relented unexpectedly and refused to budge on Day One of the European Council summit.
EU leaders on Thursday agreed to open accession talks with Kyiv, taking a definitive step toward Ukraine’s integration into the European project by bypassing Moscow’s closest ally in the bloc: the Hungarian prime minister.
But they failed to agree on a €50 billion aid package for Ukraine and on a renegotiation of the shared EU budget. That decision was postponed to an extraordinary leaders’ meeting in January, European Council President Charles Michel told reporters at the end of the first day of the summit.
“Two concessions in one summit was too much to sell back home in Hungary,” said one official briefed on the negotiations. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters early Friday morning he was optimistic a budget deal could be reached in January.
The decision on enlargement, to open talks with Ukraine and Moldova, was key. So important that Michel took the unusual step of showing up personally in the press area where dozens of accredited reporters wait to announce it in person. It was a “historic moment,” he said.
Brussels’ message to Kyiv, Moscow and Washington: The EU will continue to support Ukraine and pull it closer to the bloc — even as the U.S. struggles to get its own aid package through Congress and Ukraine fights to overcome a stalemate on the battlefield.
EU leaders thwarted weeks of vehement threats from Orbán to veto all Ukraine-related decisions within the European Council on the summit’s first day. However in a surprising, pre-agreed move, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested Orbán leave the meeting room so leaders could, technically, make a unanimous decision in his absence.
In the lead-up to the summit, some senior EU officials and diplomats were more positive that in Orbán’s inflammatory positions on Ukraine there was an element of theater.
“A small country like Hungary politically couldn’t do much to really oppose a decision so important,” one EU diplomat said.
While his exit permitted EU leaders to give Ukraine the green light, it did not stop Orbán from publicly bashing the agreement afterward, saying that Hungary did “not want to be part of this bad decision!”
For years, the EU has struggled with how to deal with the Orbán government’s clash with European institutions and its efforts to roll back the rule of law and media freedoms domestically. When Brussels held back EU funds from Hungary, Orbán parried by wielding the veto threat in the European Council to extract concessions.
But apparently, on Thursday, the Hungarian leader voluntarily gave up his vote on Ukraine on his own.
EU leaders and diplomats denied giving Orbán any trade-offs for leaving the room at the key moment. Yet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is in prime position for a second term in office after the EU election in June, ceded political capital at a crucial moment in order to smooth over Hungary’s opposition to opening talks with Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the European Commission unblocked €10.2 billion in frozen EU cohesion funds earmarked for Hungary, a move the Commission insisted was independent from Orbán’s threats to block Ukraine’s accession process. That move sparked a cacophony of criticism from key voices in the European Parliament and beyond.
Although EU leaders have overcome the initial hurdle on Ukraine’s path to membership of the Union, Orbán’s retreat does not ensure Kyiv will be allowed into the club.
Hungary can still intervene in the many steps remaining that require unanimity.
“It will be pure agony and will probably come back to bite us,” an EU official said. “But at least we got through this one, even if it’s in a slightly surrealist way.”
Hans von der Burchard, Clea Caulcutt, Gregorio Sorgi, Nicholas Vinocur, Jakob Hanke Vela, Camille Gijs, Nicolas Camut, Claudia Chiappa, Laura Hülsemann, Victor Jack, Joshua Posuaner and Wilhelmine Preussen contributed reporting.
