Orbán's veto of the 50 billion for Ukraine forces leaders to postpone the negotiation to January

The veto of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, to the aid of 50,000 million euros for Ukraine in the next community budget has prevented this Thursday the heads of State and Government of the EU from closing an agreement to review the financial framework of 2024-2027, which postpones the negotiation - and therefore the confirmation of support for Kiev - until next January.

The first day of the European Council held in Brussels has allowed the Twenty-seven to announce an agreement for the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine after overcoming a first blockade by Orban, who left the room at the suggestion of the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, at the time of the vote to avoid speaking out against and thus allow the decision to go forward by consensus, various European sources have explained.

However, after several hours of negotiation on the budget review, the leaders were able to confirm that Hungary maintained its rejection of the proposal on the table and, although they will continue the European Council on Friday, they will not resume the budget discussion until January or February next year, at an extraordinary summit.

The last agreement proposal reduced by one third the contributions that the European Commission requested from countries to increase spending in the next year (from 66,000 million to 21,000 million) but maintained the level of aid to Ukraine at 50,000 million euros.

This document received "strong support from 26 member states", as confirmed by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who pointed out that "only one leader has not been able to support it", which is why they have decided to resume this debate at the beginning of 2024, when they will try to achieve unanimity, including Orbán, to make it possible to implement this proposal.

"I want to send a positive and reassuring message, because we have the tools to guarantee that we are trustworthy; Ukrainians can count on our support," Michel added in statements to the press after finishing the meeting in the early hours of this Friday.

The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, has also been "optimistic" regarding the options of reaching an agreement with the Twenty-seven, including Hungary, despite the fact that an agreement on the budget seems "much more complicated" than he thought. has been to agree to open accession negotiations. The Dutch president has considered that "there is still time" for the agreement and pointed out that the leaders' meeting could be held "at the end of January."

Diplomatic sources have added that the Hungarian representative made it clear that he completely rejected any contribution of "fresh money" to kyiv, so the rest considered that there will be more options for success if they give "a few more weeks" to the negotiation and return to see in January.