Ukraine (bbabo.net), - Possible negotiations with Ukraine on the country's membership in the European Union are currently absurd, ridiculous and frivolous, and the Hungarian government does not intend to support them, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said today, December 13, in National Assembly of Hungary.
The Prime Minister said during the general debate in parliament on the Hungarian government's proposal to adopt a resolution on opening negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union that currently no one knows what the country's accession to the EU will entail. Also, according to him, due to the current military conflict, it is not clear with what area or population Ukraine will join the European Union.
Orbán noted that the partial opening of the market to Ukraine shows that member states are forced in response to carry out national defensive interventions in the fields of agriculture and transport. At the same time, Ukraine's accession to the EU will mean allocating 17% of the EU's current budget as support to this country, Orban clarified, which means a reduction in support for everyone else, including Hungary.
“Ukraine’s rapid accession to the European Union would have unpredictable consequences and would not meet the interests of either Hungary or the European Union,” the Prime Minister said in the National Assembly.
He recalled that Ukraine became a candidate last year, four months after submitting its application for membership. Candidate status has fixed conditions, and despite non-compliance with these conditions, Ukraine was granted an exception, Orban emphasized. The Prime Minister noted that since 1973 - the first EU enlargement - in general, more than three years have passed between submitting an application and receiving candidate status, and in the case of the enlargement of Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, four years have passed. The head of the Hungarian government clarified that North Macedonia applied for membership in 2004 and had to wait a year and a half to become a candidate, and accession negotiations are still not ongoing. Montenegro submitted its application in 2008 and waited two years before applying for membership, and took another year and a half to begin accession negotiations. Serbia and Albania applied to join in 2009, with Serbia having to wait two years to obtain candidate status and another year and a half to begin accession negotiations, Albania having to wait five years to obtain candidate status and another six years to begin accession negotiations .
Viktor Orbán has said that "blatant partiality" inevitably destroys the prestige of EU institutions, and in this case the role of national parliaments is valued and in this case they are needed to be able to discuss whether it is a good idea to open accession negotiations with Ukraine. The Hungarian government's position at the moment is that Ukraine's rapid accession to the EU would have unpredictable consequences and would not serve the interests of either Hungary or the EU.
Orbán noted that the European Union must take its own rules seriously. If European institutions do not take these rules seriously, the European Union will “simply cease to exist.” With Ukraine's rapid accession, EU institutions will ask member states, including Hungary, not to comply with their own rules. The Prime Minister of Hungary recalled that the European Commission has established seven specific conditions for granting candidate status to Ukraine. In addition, unlike previous participating countries, Ukraine was granted status in such a way that it must fulfill the conditions only after that.
The seven conditions included demanding reform in the selection of constitutional judges, checking the Supreme Judicial Council, strengthening measures to combat money laundering, guaranteeing media freedom, measures to combat corruption, measures against oligarchs and ensuring respect for the rights of national minorities. Orbán stressed that even the “biased” European Commission claims that only four of the seven conditions have been met. Ukraine should not have been granted candidate status, let alone started negotiations with it, Orban said. However, according to his assessment, not a single condition has actually been met. International analyzes available to the government suggest that there have in fact been failures in four areas agreed by the European Commission.Viktor Orbán stressed that the law on reform of the selection of constitutional judges has not been implemented, and the law on the procedure of the Constitutional Court has not been adopted. The selection criteria for the High Council of Justice and judges are unclear, and even the European Commission considers that further development of the system of administration of justice based on external and independent audit is justified. In the fight against money laundering, the necessary decisions were not taken and no one was held accountable. The implementation of the adopted legislation simply was not carried out, stated the Hungarian Prime Minister.
Orbán stressed that, according to the European Commission, the case for media and press freedom supposedly done is that, despite formal guarantees, the Ukrainian government has effectively abolished freedom of opinion and press, citing national security reasons. In the case of a country at war, according to the Hungarian government, this cannot be objected to, but this does not mean that “we Europeans should laugh at ourselves when we claim that freedom of the press prevails in Ukraine.”
In three areas - corruption, the fight against oligarchs and the issue of national minorities, even according to the European Commission, the conditions were not met.
Viktor Orban also noted that it is unclear what the law passed by the Ukrainian parliament, which supposedly favors minorities, contains. He recalled that in 2015, the rights to which they were entitled were taken away from Hungarians and other national communities living in Ukraine. Neither Hungarians living in Ukraine nor Hungarians living in Hungary want more than to return the rights enjoyed by minorities living there before 2015, the Prime Minister said during a parliamentary debate, adding that they are not asking for a new law. new solutions or complex procedures. It is simply necessary to restore the law, which guaranteed the Hungarians the rights and conditions of public life until 2015.
“Possible negotiations with Ukraine on the country’s membership in the European Union are currently absurd, ridiculous and frivolous, and the Hungarian government does not intend to support them,” Orban concluded.
The Prime Minister pointed out that at the moment no one knows what the accession of the country will entail, nor how much territory or population Ukraine will join the community. He recalled that there were no examples of a community entering into accession negotiations with a country at war. He also noted that the partial opening of the market shows that member states had to implement nation-state defensive measures in agriculture and transport to prevent "irreparable damage." Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Hungarian lives could be destroyed because of this, he said.
Orbán continued that German economic researchers estimate that Ukraine's full membership of the European Union would entail additional costs of €190 billion. Ukraine could qualify for €93 billion in subsidies over seven years for its agricultural land, more than France , which currently receives the most, and ten times more than Hungary. Orban emphasized that a significant part of this money will also “go into the pockets of Americans, since the Americans have bought up to their ears in the Ukrainian agricultural sector.” Thus, the start of negotiations would mean that all EU countries except Ukraine would become net contributors or take away 20% of agricultural subsidies from everyone. Ukraine should also receive €87 billion from cohesion funds, he continued. This is three times more than Hungary should receive on paper.
Viktor Orbán appealed to both the left and national parties in Hungary with a request to consider Ukraine’s membership in the EU not as a party issue, but as a national one.
“Ukraine’s membership in the EU in its current form sharply contradicts the interests of Hungary,” he emphasized. — Ukraine can and should be helped, but no one should want Hungary to be destroyed during this process. Hungary is under pressure, but we must not lose sight of the fact that we remain the voice of European common sense. We are interested in a peaceful and prosperous Ukraine, but this requires establishing peace as quickly as possible and purposefully deepening the strategic partnership.”
Orban added that as a result, one day, after quite a few years, Ukraine could even become a member of the European Union, if the time really comes.
“There is a time for everything, the time has not yet come for Ukraine to become a member of the European Union,” concluded Viktor Orban.
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