Hungary: No Ukraine talks on EU agenda

BRUSSELS — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded on Monday that Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and billions of euros in funding meant for the wartorn country be taken off the agenda at a summit of the bloc’s leaders next week.

In a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, who will chair the Dec. 14-15 summit in Brussels, Orban insisted that a “strategic discussion” is needed first about Ukraine’s European future and warned that forcing a decision could destroy EU unity.

Decisions on EU’S enlargement and a review of its long-term budget, which includes 50 billion euros ($54.1 billion U.S.) in aid for Kyiv, can only be taken unanimously by all 27 member countries.

“I respectfully urge you not to invite the European Council to decide on these matters in December as the obvious lack of consensus would inevitably lead to failure,” Orban wrote in the letter, dated Dec. 4 and seen by The Associated Press.

EU leaders, he wrote, “must avoid this counterproductive scenario for the sake of unity, our most important asset.” He did not explicitly say that Hungary would veto any moves to open membership talks with Ukraine, but the threat was implicit.

Ukraine is counting on the EU funds to help its war-stricken economy survive in the coming year.

Last month, the European Commission, which supervises the enlargement process, recommended that Ukraine be allowed open membership talks once it addresses governance issues such as corruption, lobbying concerns and restrictions that might prevent its minorities from studying and reading in their own languages.

Orban has also claimed Ukraine is “light years” away from joining the EU and that its membership would not be in Hungary’s interests.

He is considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies in Europe.