BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – Until the start of the EU summit, the dispute over the start of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine was considered deadlocked and difficult to resolve. 26 states agreed, only Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stood in the way because he did not see the conditions as being met. In the end, the solution was not a substantive one, but rather a procedural one. According to information from several sources from the German Press Agency, it was proposed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz early on Thursday evening.
The SPD politician asked Orban to leave the meeting for the vote in order to enable the necessary unanimous vote from the other heads of state and government. This meant that the Hungarian could stick to his no to the accession negotiations without blocking them.
Immediately after the decision, he made his rejection very clear again in a Facebook video: “It is a completely senseless, irrational and wrong decision to start negotiations with Ukraine under these circumstances,” said the head of government. Hungary will not change its position. However, the other 26 EU countries insisted that this decision be made. It remained unclear whether Orban was promised anything in return for his step./mfi/aha/DP/zb