Kuleba and Borrell discussed steps for the December EU summit decision to start accession talks, work continues
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and EU representative Josep Borrell discussed steps to turn the European Commission's recommendation into a decision by the EU Council to start negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. This comes amid concerns over Hungary's threat to block EU aid and Ukraine's EU accession bid.
The heads of diplomacy of Ukraine and the EU discussed how the European Commission's conclusion on the recommendation to start negotiations with Kyiv on joining the bloc could be transformed into an actual decision of the EU Council in December to start accession talks, and work continues with EU member states to make this happen. This was announced by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at a joint press conference with EU High Representative Josep Borrell in Brussels on Tuesday, UNN reports .
I can confirm that Josep and I discussed in detail this issue of how we can get from the conclusion provided by the European Commission and the recommendation to start accession negotiations to the decision of the EU Council in December to actually start these accession negotiations. There is, as always, a lot of work ahead, but I am happy to say that we are in full agreement with Josep and will continue to work with member states to make this decision happen,
To recap,
Politico reportedthat Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened to block all EU aid to Ukraine, as well as the country's future accession to the bloc, unless EU leaders agree to revise their entire strategy of supporting Kyiv.
Against this backdrop, the EU on November 23 approved an advance payment of 900 million euros ($1 billion) to Hungary from its still-frozen share of the recovery funds, as the bloc tries to override Budapest's veto on aid to Ukraine.
EU officials told Reuters last month that the bloc was considering providing aid to Hungary to gain Budapest's support for Ukraine. More recently, however, sources involved in the preparations for the December 14-15 summit of EU leaders to discuss Ukraine expressed growing skepticism that Orban could be influenced.
In addition, on November 27, European Council President Charles Michel visited Budapest for consultations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in preparation for the upcoming EU summit, where important decisions on Ukraine are expected.
Orban called the meeting "useful" without giving any further details.