The first day of the Brussels Summit ended without a press conference at 02:30 (local time; 03:30 Greek time), with the review of the multi-annual fiscal framework being a “thorn”.

The leaders failed to find common ground, despite long hours of discussions. However, the decision to start accession negotiations with Ukraine was described as a positive development.

At midnight, the negotiations at the leaders’ level were suspended. The 27 returned to the negotiating table shortly after 01:30 (02:30).

The agreement to open accession negotiations for Ukraine was reached at around 18:30 (19:30), after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán left the meeting room and the remaining 26 said yes.

Mr Orban, about 10 minutes after leaving the meeting, uploaded a video to social media in which he stuck to his position, calling it a “bad deal”.

The European Council has also decided to grant candidate country status to Georgia, while the EU will start negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the accession criteria is achieved. He called on the European Commission to submit a report by March with a view to making a decision.

The 27 return to the table later today (at 10:00 local time, 11:00 Greek time), with the revision of the MFF open, but the Middle East also a difficult issue.

Hungary blocks €50 billion in EU aid to Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that he exercised his veto, during the summit of 27, in order not to adopt new financial support of the European Union to Ukraine, worth 50 billion euros, through the European budget.

“Veto on additional funds in Ukraine, veto on the revision of the European multiannual financial framework, we will return to the issue next year after proper preparations,” Mr Orban said via X (formerly Twitter). On the other hand, he did not veto the decision of EU leaders to start accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Hungary blocks €50bn aid deal to Ukraine, talks to resume in January (Dutch PM)

Hungary blocked a final agreement at the summit to allocate fifty billion euros to Ukraine from the European budget and the 27 decided to continue negotiations on the issue in January, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters in the early hours of today. , leaving the hall where the first day of the summit ended.

Mr Rutte explained that the remaining 26 countries had agreed to allocate 50 billion euros from the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework until 2027, but Budapest opposed the decision, which requires unanimity.

“We still have some time, Ukraine will not run out of money in the next few weeks,” assessed the Dutch Prime Minister.

“The 26 of us agreed. Viktor Orban, Hungary, could not agree. I am quite sure that we can close the deal at the beginning of next year, we estimate at the end of January,” added Mr. Rutte, clarifying that the deal should be finalized at the next summit.