As Hungary blocks Ukraine’s path to the European Union, EU leaders will travel to Ukraine in December to show support for Kiev’s bid to join the bloc, Politico reports.
The informal meeting of European affairs ministers will take place in western Ukraine’s city of Lviv on the 10th and 11th of December. The invitation was signed by Denmark, which currently holds the EU presidency, and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka. It said the discussion would focus on Ukraine’s progress on its path to EU membership, and that the meeting would be an opportunity to assess progress, discuss next steps, and reaffirm political support for Ukraine’s reforms and efforts to join the bloc.
The invitation said the meeting in Ukraine would send a clear message that Ukraine’s place in the future is among other EU countries.
The plan to meet in Lviv comes as Brussels struggles to agree on a joint commitment to continuing direct support for Ukraine. Belgium has opposed a proposal to use frozen Russian assets to provide a loan to Kiev.
Ukraine became an EU candidate country in 2022 and has carried out extensive economic, judicial and anti-corruption reforms despite the ongoing war launched by Russia. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has vowed to block Ukraine’s entry into the bloc. This requires unanimous support from all member states, and
Orbán has managed to prevent formal accession talks from starting.
There have been proposals to change the conditions and allow the process to proceed with majority support rather than unanimous support, but these have failed to materialize due to a lack of sufficient support within the bloc. Two officials told Politico that the decision was instead to let Ukraine, along with its neighbor Moldova, work on the next round of reforms without waiting for formal approval. That means Kiev will have to act quickly if it manages to break the deadlock. Orbán faces tough Hungarian parliamentary elections next year, and polls show the opposition ahead of the current prime minister’s right-wing party in popularity.
One of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plan was to do as much as possible without waiting for anything, and then move on immediately once Hungary no longer uses its veto.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hailing the positive report from Brussels, said Ukraine would become a full member state once the war is over and it stands on its own two feet.
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