The Hungarian Prime Minister stated that, thanks to Hungary’s proposals, the summit’s final statement had “been significantly improved”
News editor at LIGA.net
Peter Magyar (Photo: EPA / Filip Singer)
Hungary succeeded in having the wording regarding Ukraine’s accelerated accession removed from the final declaration of the European Union summit. Prime Minister Péter Magyar initiated this proposal and insisted that it be included. He reported this on X.
Why This Matters. The change in Hungary’s government has given new hope to those who support Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the European Union. But the new government, led by Magyar, is also imposing a number of conditions on Kyiv. Read about the price that Hungary’s current prime minister might demand from Ukraine, in this article .
According to Madyar, during several weeks of work on the wording based on the Hungarian proposal, the statement was “significantly improved”.
“At my initiative, a provision regarding the acceleration of accession was removed from the text at the last minute. It wasn’t easy,” Madyar noted.
He emphasized that, for the first time in a year and a half, the final statement was adopted by consensus among all EU member states.
“That may well be the case if someone comes not just to overturn tables and spread fear, but also to try to find a compromise,” added Madyar.
This was his first time attending an EU summit as Hungary’s prime minister. A Hungarian diplomat told Euronews on condition of anonymity that at the summit, Magyar had a brief conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and expressed doubts about the advisability of quickly opening the remaining negotiation clusters for Ukraine.
The Hungarian side claims that it is “not alone” in holding this position. Some other European Union countries have expressed similar reservations:.
At the same time, according to media reports, Zelenskyy is optimistic and believes that Hungary will help open the remaining chapters for negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU “sooner than you think”.
The summit’s final statement notes that the European Union and will continue to increase pressure on Russia to weaken its war economy, “so that the Russian Federation will end its brutal war of aggression and begin serious peace negotiations”.
The European Union has also extended its economic sanctions against Russia for the first time—not for six months, as it had done previously, but for a year.