A decision to start talks on Ukraine’s EU accession is on a knife-edge after Hungary said it would not bow to mounting pressure to give the green light.
Viktor Orbán’s threat to veto the launch of negotiations is being taken seriously, with Ukraine’s foreign minister warning of “devastating consequences” for his country if the talks are blocked.
The 27 EU leaders are due to meet on Thursday and Friday and one diplomat said the mood in Brussels was increasingly bleak.
Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, who boasts about his strong ties to Vladimir Putin, has said he will block the decision on EU enlargement and potentially block continued financial support for Ukraine.
On Sunday, he and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shared a short and apparently intense exchange at the inauguration of Argentina’s new president.
Last week, in a defiant move, Orbán declared Ukraine to be “one of the most corrupt countries in the world”, hours after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had met him to try to persuade him not to veto EU enlargement talks.
Credit: theguardian.com
