European Commission responds to Orbán, who wants Ukraine’s EU accession off agenda

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The European Commission has responded to remarks made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is insisting that the EU summit in mid-December should not even consider the issue of starting EU membership negotiations with Ukraine.

Source: EC representative Ana Pisonero at a briefing, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Pisonero said that the European Commission does not agree with Orban’s claims that the EC’s position on Ukraine is “unfounded and poorly prepared”.

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“We do not believe that our proposal is unreasonable. On the contrary, we believe that Ukraine has done an amazing job. For our part, we have made recommendations for the start of negotiations, and now it is up to the member states to decide on our proposals,” she stressed.

Background:

• The Hungarian Prime Minister has strongly opposed the start of accession talks since the European Commission gave its green light in November.
• Orbán recently said that the EU should first sign a strategic partnership agreement with Ukraine and return to talks about membership negotiations “in 5-10 years”.
• Orbán recently wrote a letter to the President of the European Council in which he threatened to block EU assistance to Ukraine and its progress towards EU membership unless EU leaders agree to review their entire strategy of supporting Kyiv.
• EU leaders will consider these issues at a summit on 14-15 December.

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