EU to Decide on Ukraine Membership Talks, as Hungary Threatens Veto

LONDON — The European Union will decide whether to start accession talks with Ukraine at a crucial two-day summit this week that begins Thursday. Hungary is threatening to veto the move.

The EU approved Ukraine’s candidate status in June 2022, a few months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country began. At this week’s European Council summit in Brussels, scheduled for December 14-15, EU heads of state are set to decide whether to launch formal membership talks with Kyiv.

Speaking ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said his country had already completed many of the reforms demanded by the bloc.

“I came here with a clear message of Ukraine’s commitment to do its homework, to open accession talks and move towards membership in the EU. In return, in the spirit of partnership, mutual interests and reciprocity, we also expect the European Union to make a decision that will appreciate the effort made by Ukraine and grant to our country opening of the accession talks,” Kuleba said.

He said that the summit would be a test of the EU’s ability to keep its promises.

“I cannot imagine, I don’t even want to talk about, the devastating consequences that will occur shall the [EU] Council fail to make this decision, not only with regard to Ukraine, but in a broader sense on the issue of enlargement as a whole,” Kuleba told reporters.

Standing in the way is a single EU member: Hungary. Its government says Kyiv isn’t ready to begin accession talks and argues that a country at war should not start such discussions with the bloc.

Hungarian ministers have threatened to veto Ukraine’s membership bid, along with a proposed $54 billion EU aid package for Kyiv as part of the bloc’s 2024 annual budget.

Speaking to Hungarian television on Monday, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto questioned the EU’s assessment of Ukraine’s reforms.

“If you look at the expectations set by the European Union and what the Ukrainians have done so far, it is clear that the European Commission’s assessment that the Ukrainians already met four out of seven prerequisites is simply false; it is not true,” Szijjarto said, accusing fellow EU leaders of trying to force Hungary’s decision.

“It’s clear they are trying to get us to join a decision that is obviously not acceptable to us. We will never give up our national interests. We will never give up our sovereign decision-making powers,” he said.

A failure by the EU to start accession talks with Ukraine would have wider consequences, according to Ian Bond, head of foreign policy at the Center for European Reform.

“The psychological impact would be quite considerable, because it will give a boost to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin who will think that, in fact, the West has not fully accepted that Ukraine should be part of the Western camp. And it will be psychologically damaging within Ukraine because people have built up this hope that they have been accepted as part of the family,” Bond told VOA.

The EU’s dispute with Hungary over Ukraine’s accession is complicated by a separate issue over the rule of law. Brussels is continuing to withhold from Hungary around $24 billion from the bloc’s post-COVID stimulus fund over concerns about the backsliding of democracy, including the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press.

The EU is set to welcome back an old ally at the summit: the former EU Council President Donald Tusk, who was elected as Poland’s prime minister Monday, ending eight years of rule by the Law and Justice Party. Tusk pledged to repair relations with Brussels.

“Poland’s task, the new government’s task, but also the task of all of us, is to loudly and firmly demand full determination from the entire Western community to help Ukraine win this war. I will do this from Day One,” Tusk told lawmakers in Warsaw.

EU leaders are set to discuss a new raft of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on Russian diamonds.

The Israel-Hamas war will also feature high on the summit agenda, with the bloc due to discuss imposing sanctions against Israeli settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, following a similar move by the United States last week.
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