Hungary is blocking the enlargement process document that the European Union adopts every year because it opposes Ukraine's EU accession talks, Danish Minister for European Affairs Marie Bier said today, quoted by DPA, BTA reports.
The government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said it will not support a positive assessment of Ukraine's progress, Bier said. However, this element of the assessment cannot be removed as it is supported by all other EU countries, she added.
Denmark currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“We have 26 member states that have demonstrated strong support for Ukraine and Ukraine is meeting expectations“, said Bier on the sidelines of the consultations in Brussels.
The wording on Ukraine is “fair and honest“, she added.
German representative Günter Krichbaum criticized Hungary's behavior, calling it “increasingly destructive”, and accused Budapest of holding back the EU.
For Ukraine, Hungary's veto means that it can no longer hope to start formal EU accession negotiations.
However, Bier stressed that the accession process is still is progressing because the work is continuing unofficially.
“This means that Ukraine is receiving instructions on how to carry out reforms, what to implement, what most member states want the country to implement“, said Bier, adding that the accession process “is still active“.
This means that the country could make very rapid progress if Hungary were to at some point drop its veto.
The current Hungarian government justifies its opposition to Ukraine's accession to the EU by pointing to the country's great financial needs and accusing it of putting the Hungarian minority in Ukraine at a disadvantage.
The Danish presidency of the Council of the EU expressed regret that it was unable to convince Hungary to support the start of accession negotiations with Ukraine. "I am very sorry, several countries have noted that this sends the wrong signal to the countries applying for accession," said Danish Minister for European Affairs Marie Bier at a press conference after the last meeting of the EU Council on General Affairs for the year.
It was planned to adopt conclusions related to EU enlargement at today's meeting, but Hungary did not give its support and the necessary unanimity was not achieved. Bier explained that Denmark will now propose conclusions to the presidency - a position of 26 of the 27 EU countries (excluding Hungary).
We tried to reach conclusions of the EU Council today, but unfortunately it was not possible, she pointed out. Hungary blocked us from reaching conclusions, our attempts were rejected, said Bier. We want the EU applicant countries to choose us, not Russia, she added.
European Commissioner for Budget Affairs Piotr Serafin expressed his expectation that the technical work to prepare the negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova will continue. When conditions allow, we will be able to move on to defining the negotiating framework, he added. Serafin added that it is time to prepare the draft treaty for Montenegro's accession.
We also need to prepare in the EU for future enlargement, this is also related to the budget, the European Commissioner explained. We need to assess how to adapt our policies in the future to the accession of additional countries, Serafin said.
Denmark had set itself the task of convincing Budapest to support the negotiations with Kiev at the beginning of its presidency in July. From January 1, the presidency will be taken over by Cyprus, whose permanent representative to the EU said a few days ago that the issue of enlargement remains among the leading tasks.