Last-minute attempts to bring Mr. Orbán into the pro-Ukrainian camp within the EU

HUNGARY - In Brief 12 Dec 2023 by Istvan Racz

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It is now more hours than days that are left until this week's scheduled EU decisions, which appear to be critical for Hungary, prospectively determining the country's future, substantially and for quite a long while. First, the Commission is set to decide on its assessment and recommendation as to the unfreezing of €10.5bn of EU funds for Hungary, and  then the Council is scheduled to vote, at its weekend summit, on starting accession talks with Ukraine. For the latter to be approved, the Council will need Hungary's support as well, and for the time being, Hungary's government is known to be fiercely against the proposal.  Other pending issues, all prospectively being blocked by Hungary, are a €100bn increase in the EU's running seven-year budget, mainly to create room for a €50bn+ grant package for Ukraine, the next payout from the European Pace Facility (also to Ukraine), and new sanctions on Russia. But the key issue, the one on which the consensus of all member states excluding Hungary appear to insist upon heavily, is the accession talks with Ukraine. So Mr. Orbán will have think twice before casting his vote because whatever recommendation is issued by the Commission on unfreezing funds to Hungary will also need endorsement from the Council, although not by the current summit, but from a lower-level formation where a qualified-majority vote will be required. But mainly, Hungary's overall standing within the EU seems to be very much at stake. The pressure on Mr. Orbán to give up his fiercely contrarian position is huge. A sweeping storm of anger, frustration, disgust and even hatred from within the EU has flown towards him lately. We would only cite two examples,...