Hungary continues to veto Ukraine's accession to EU, negotiations
Budapest will not agree to open the first round of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Aug. 30.
The statement was made after the informal meeting of the EU countries' ministers in Copenhagen on Aug. 30.
Szijjarto said that Hungary will not allow Ukraine's accession to the EU, as this "would destroy Hungarian farmers, Hungary's food security, and allow the Ukrainian mafia to enter Hungary," a Hungarian media outlet reported on Aug. 30.
"That is why we will not allow the substantive part of the accession negotiations, i.e., the specific rounds of the negotiations, to be opened," Szijjarto said.
Hungary is broadly seen as the most Kremlin-friendly government in the EU and NATO. The country has consistently obstructed aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia throughout the full-scale war.
Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after Russia launched its war in 2022 and was granted candidate status within months.
As an EU member, Hungary has veto power over further progress.
Szijjarto also claimed that Europe is not looking for peace but for a long-term continuation of the war. Hungary itself will support the peace efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump, as only an agreement between the U.S. and Russia can lead to a settlement, he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to end the war have faltered, amid multiple extensions of a deadline to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about peace.
"We will not allow (...) the Hungarian people's money to be used to arm and finance the Ukrainian army, so we continue to oppose the use of approximately 2,5 billion forints ($6.76 million) of European taxpayers' money from the European Peace Fund for all this," Szijjarto added.
"And finally, we will not allow Brussels and Kyiv to jointly jeopardize Hungary's energy security. We will not allow the cost of utilities in Hungary to increase, so we will not support proposals for sanctions against energy companies that are important for Hungary's energy supply," Szijjarto added.
Szijjarto on Aug. 13 condemned a Ukrainian drone strike on a key distribution station of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Russia's Bryansk Oblast
The Druzhba pipeline is one of the world's largest oil pipelines. Hungary, which relies on the line for most of its crude oil, is among the two remaining European Union countries — together with Slovakia — still importing Russian oil via Druzhba under an exemption from EU sanctions.
