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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s relations with the European Union are increasingly deteriorating. Today, December 15, the expert of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future Ihor Popov stated this on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel.
“Viktor Orbán and his party’s relations with the European Union are getting worse and worse. And there is more and more debate about whether this party wants to apply and follow European values in Hungary itself. That is why they are already repeatedly talking about their version of Brexit, which is called differently, using the name of the country of Hungary,” he said.
According to Popov, Ukraine now shows commitment to European values and stands for their protection to a greater extent than some EU member states.
The expert of the Ukrainian Future Institute noted that, in addition to Euroscepticism, Orban has a certain ancient history of relations with certain Russian citizens back in the 1990s.
“And now Hungary can make its decisions under the pressure of the Kremlin’s very pragmatic arguments, whether it is a delay in paying for gas, whether it is discounts for gas, or whether it is too favorable loans for the construction of a nuclear power plant. And thus, yes, Hungary can influence the decisions of the European Union. But so far we can see that these solutions are not blocking. That is, it creates problems, but also with regard to membership negotiations, and in the future regarding funding, the European Union will bypass Hungary’s position and still provide funding to Ukraine. An extraordinary summit will be held at the beginning of January, and if there is no such consensus decision, then since 26 countries are ready to provide financial assistance, they will provide it either through a separate fund, which will not be considered an official EU fund, or on the basis of bilateral agreements,” Popov is convinced.
He clarified that such a process will take longer, but, despite all that, Ukraine will receive financial support.
According to Popov, the European Union is currently considering the possibility of making some decisions by a qualified majority, rather than by consensus.
“There will be a very long way to this, because it is a revision of the basic documents of the European Union. Before that, they will try to persuade or conduct some kind of exchange,” the expert said.
