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Orban walks out as EU leaders discuss Ukrainian accession process

The Hungarian Prime Minister noted that the country "does not want to take part in this bad decision"

BUDAPEST, December 14. /TASS/. Budapest had no part in the EU’s decision to start accession negotiations with Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said commenting on the results of the EU summit in Brussels.

"Under the circumstances, it is a completely irrational and wrong decision to open negotiations with Ukraine, and Hungary is not changing its position on this. Since 26 other EU member countries insisted that this decision be made, Hungary decided that they can go their own way. Hungary did not participate in this bad decision, and therefore it abstained from voting today," Orban said in a video address posted on his Facebook page (the social media owned by US corporation Meta that is outlawed as an extremist organization in Russia).

The prime minister wrote a caption under his video address, saying, "Ukraine’s membership in the EU is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to be part of this bad decision."

In addition, Orban pointed out that the debate on whether to start EU membership talks with Ukraine lasted eight hours. According to reports from Brussels, Orban walked out of the room when the other 26 EU leaders were deciding on the start of negotiations. Before the summit, he demanded that the issue not be put on the agenda, indicating that Ukraine had not met the necessary requirements and was not ready to join the EU.

In his video address, the prime minister said that the talks on the second key issue, the EU’s financial aid to Ukraine, would be continued. Hungary objects to amending the EU budget for 2024-2027 for the sake of earmarking 50 billion euros to Ukraine during this period.

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Ukraine EU Hungary

Middle East conflict

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