Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded on Monday that next week’s EU summit avoid a decision to open accession talks with Ukraine, whose armed forces are fighting Russia, despite this being a strong desire of President Volodymyr’s government. Zelensky.

Mr Orban, who has maintained relations with Moscow despite European sanctions against Russia over its military incursion into Ukrainian territory, has insisted in recent weeks that Ukraine is not ready to start accession talks.

His position is diametrically opposed to that of the European Commission, which suggested last week that Kiev be given the green light on the condition that some final conditions are met.

But taking a decision requires the unanimity of the leaders of the EU member states.

The Hungarian prime minister made this demand in a letter to Charles Michel, the president of the European Council. He also ruled that no decision should be taken at the session on the draft budget that includes the granting of 50 billion euros to Ukraine as financial support.

“I respectfully urge you not to call the European Council to take decisions on these issues in December, as the apparent lack of consensus will inevitably lead to failure,” Viktor Orbán said. “The European Council must avoid this counterproductive scenario for the sake of unity, our most important resource.”

A spokesman for Mr Michel declined to comment on the letter.

Other European leaders have made it clear that instead they want Ukraine’s accession prospects and the question of the budget and support for Kiev to be discussed at next Thursday and Friday’s (December 14 and 15) meeting in Brussels.

Strongly pro-Kiev European diplomats worry that a disagreement at the summit on accession negotiations and aid would deal a heavy political blow to war-torn Ukraine and give Moscow a boost.

If Mr. Orban remains unmoved in his position, the same sources estimated that a new, extraordinary session would be required in early 2024.

Representatives of the 27 are starting today to finalize the text of the conclusions of the session, which is also expected to examine the accession prospects of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia. The resulting text, diplomats point out, is subject to change.

A draft dated December 4 that came to the attention of the Reuters news agency yesterday, Monday, states: “The European Council decides to start accession negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine.”

For Georgia, the text states that it will secure the status of a country candidate for accession after the prerequisites are put in place. For Bosnia, that the EU is “ready to start accession negotiations (…) as soon as the necessary degree of compliance with the accession criteria is established.”

In what was widely interpreted as an attempt to persuade Budapest to change its stance, the Commission announced it would release funds earmarked for Hungary that had been frozen due to concerns about the rule of law in that country, including concerns about corruption.

Charles Michel visited Budapest last week, but there was no sign that he was able to convince Viktor Orbán. A European diplomat characteristically said that Mr. Michel “left empty-handed.” An EU official discounted that it is “very difficult” to reach a consensus on Ukraine at the summit.