Hungary blocks EU summit conclusions on Ukraine: it “contradicts strategic interests”

Hungary will not support the European Council conclusions on aid to Ukraine, including the initiative of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, because it “contradicts the strategic interests” of Budapest.

This was stated by Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka before the start of the EU General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.

Bóka stressed that the part of the draft European Council conclusions that concerns Ukraine does not correspond to Hungary’s strategic vision for European security.

“Hungary cannot support part of the European Council’s conclusion on Ukraine as a whole, including the one that concerns Kaja Kallas’ initiative for Ukraine,” said János Bóka.

“The part that concerns Ukraine contradicts Hungary’s strategic interests and strategic vision on how to create a new European security architecture in several points,” he added.

According to the Hungarian minister, “Hungary cannot support the conclusions on Ukraine in their current form.”

“It is highly unlikely that we will find a new consensus among the 27 EU member states in any text. I think that the scenario of March 6 will most likely repeat itself, when the conclusions will only mention the discussion on Ukraine, and there will be a different text supported by the vast majority of EU member states,” Boka emphasized.

Earlier, media sources reported that during the non-public negotiations on the text of the European Council conclusions on March 20–21, Hungary again demanded that mention of support for Ukraine be excluded from it.

The day before, the EU’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, confirmed that the EU wants to provide military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 40 billion euros, and this project will be on the agenda of the European Council on March 20, and its support should be reflected in the conclusions of the EU leaders’ summit.

On March 6, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban refused to sign the conclusions of the extraordinary European Council meeting regarding support for Ukraine; as a result, the text was agreed upon by 26 of the 27 states of the European Union.