The EU gives up on Orbán and renounces unity

BrusselsVladimir Putin's thorn in the side, his black sheep, or his mole in the European Union. These are some of the epithets the press has heaped on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. at almost every European summitIn fact, Orbán often makes headlines because he's the only European leader who repeatedly refuses to increase support for Ukraine and always puts up obstacles, unless he can't get any compensation from Brussels, such as the disbursement of European funds that have been frozen in violation of EU law.

The strategies of his counterparts to prevent Orbán from vetoing essential initiatives for the future of Ukraine and the security of the European bloc have been varied and increasingly creative. One of the most surprising was in February of last year, when European leaders took advantage of the Hungarian Prime Minister's He went to the bathroom to approve the deployment of an aid package in Kiev. worth 50 billion euros. Of course, the Hungarian leader left the room after the European Commission He would give him part of the money that he had frozen.

However, the war in Ukraine is approaching a critical point, and neither Orbán, who remains close to Putin, nor European leaders are willing to give in or waste time. In this context, the EU has completely changed its strategy regarding Hungary and has already completely given up trying to convince it to back initiatives to support Volodymyr Zelensky's government. "We will process it again with the 26 [the 27 without Hungary]," reported community sources before the European Council meeting this Thursday in Brussels.

Thus, for the second time in a row, the heads of state and government of the community bloc have given up from the outset on trying to include Hungary in the agreements to support Kiev. This makes the conclusions on Ukraine much more ambitious than they would be if they had to be approved by Budapest, and it also speeds up the meetings between European leaders, which used to drag on for hours until they somehow managed to get Orbán to budge.

In this regard, the European club is promoting various initiatives to support Ukrainian troops on a voluntary basis. This means that only member states that wish to participate can participate, and therefore, Orbán cannot veto them. The latest proposal along these lines was presented this Thursday by European Foreign Minister Kaja Kallas, who proposes that each country immediately provide ammunition to Ukraine until the EU's overall response is reached. reach 5 billion euros with this armament, which is what Volodymyr Zelensky is urgently demanding.

The Hungarian precedent

The European Union fears that the Hungarian government's attitude will set a precedent and that other member states will follow suit, which would further complicate the blog's operation. And, in fact, this is one of Brussels' main fears when it comes to expanding eastward and the Balkans. Therefore, the EU has now seen the possibility of streamlining the processing of initiatives with this formula of an agreement between twenty-six member states rather than by unanimity.

The problem is, however, that there are measures that cannot be taken without the approval of all member states, such as sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime or the upcoming EU budget, which are expected to be crucial for the rearmament of the EU. For this reason, several European partners, including Germany and France, are calling for changes to the EU treaties to allow for the expansion of the sectors in which initiatives can be approved without unanimity. That is, normalizing the fact that more and more measures are being taken without unity and that, as has happened at the last two summits with Hungary, some countries are left out of the European Union's major decisions.