Ukraine is light years away from being able to start negotiations with the European Union

The minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office spoke about this in connection with the Orbán-Michel meeting.

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held a bilateral meeting in Budapest. Gulyás Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office, spoke about the important meeting in response to atv.hu.

"The government's position has not changed, what the Prime Minister said before, Ukraine is light years away from being able to start negotiations with the European Union"

- said Gergely Gulyás after today's annual ministerial committee hearing in response to the question of whether the Hungarian government can support the start of Ukraine's EU accession negotiations after Kiev suddenly amends the language law.

Ukraine and EU accession

"As a candidate for membership in the EU, we also heard - but when we supported the countries of the Northern Balkans that wanted to join - that objective criteria must be met. "Today, the material presented by the European Commission does not dispute that Ukraine does not meet these objective criteria, which are necessary for the start of negotiations," said the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office. He added:

only one type of decision can follow from this".

Ursula von der Leyen 

In its analysis, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: as an additional condition for his yes to the continuation of aid to Ukraine, Viktor Orbán would allegedly stipulate that the current EU Commission President, whom he does not like, Ursula von der Leyen, should not be nominated by the European Council after the European Parliament elections due in the summer of 2024 again for this position.

To the question whether it is conceivable that Viktor Orbán imposed such a condition on the President of the European Council in Karmelita, Gergely Gulyás answered as follows:

I was not present, but I consider it almost impossible that this was said".

He also noted that

"in general, it can be said that the German press and those published there should not be treated like the free press of a free country".

Featured image: Mandiner / Árpád Földházi