Just hours after an agreement was reached on beginning membership talks, Hungary has blocked € 50 billion in EU aid for Ukraine, hours after an agreement was reached on starting membership talks.
After Thursday's talks in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the "Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine."
While, EU leaders said the aid negotiations would resume early next year.
On Hungarian state radio, PM Orban said he tried for hours to convince European leaders not to sign off on launching accession negotiations with Kyiv.
"They want to give Ukraine through this decision the encouragement needed to continue the war, and they asked that I don’t obstruct them in this," he said.
“But their decisive argument was that Hungary doesn’t lose anything with this … If we don’t want Ukraine to be a member of the European Union, then the Hungarian parliament votes it down. And until the issue gets to the parliaments, it’s a very, very long process, and as they counted and I did, there are about 75 occasions when the Hungarian government can stop this process. And they said that if during the negotiations there is something which hurts Hungary’s interests, I stop it," he added.
Orban also reiterated that Hungary did not want to take part in the "bad decision" and that is why he left the room while leaders made the decision to open accession talks.
Amid the intensifying attacks, Ukraine is heavily dependent on EU and US funding. Hungary's aid block comes after EU leaders decided to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
Hungary maintains close ties with Russia.
Meanwhile, Albin Kurti, Kosovo’s prime minister, called the EU’s decision to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova a “historic moment”.
Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda said that “Today we are celebrating.”
“I am proud to be European, and it was necessary to send this political signal to our friends, in Ukraine especially,” he added.
According to European Council President Charles Michel, 26 out of the 27 leaders agreed on Ukraine funding. The budget revision includes a proposed 50 billion euro package for Ukraine, and spending on migration, defence and other priorities.
