EU Summit in Brussels: Hungary Once Again Blocks Joint Statement on Ukraine Support
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Portugal's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Slovenia's Prime Minister Robert Golob meet, on the day of a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 26, 2025. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
On June 26, during the first day of a two-day European Union summit in Brussels, EU leaders were unable to adopt a unified statement in support of Ukraine, as Hungary once again blocked consensus.
This is reported by Radio Liberty journalist Rikard Jozwiak.
According to the updated communiqué of the European Council, the statement’s text received strong backing from 26 out of 27 EU member states. Only Hungary, represented by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, opposed the draft, once again exercising its veto power in European diplomacy.
As a result, despite broad recognition of Ukraine’s reform progress and calls to accelerate EU accession talks, the final document was issued merely as a political declaration, lacking the formal status of a Council decision.
The communiqué reaffirms the EU’s “unwavering support for Ukraine’s European integration path” and urges intensified efforts toward accession, including the opening of the first negotiation cluster and expanded defense support for Kyiv.
In parallel, the European Council welcomed the implementation of new sanctions against Russia and emphasized the importance of providing Ukraine with credible security guarantees in the event of a future peace agreement.
The question of Ukraine’s EU membership, along with the potential submission of a new application, will be revisited at the next summit. According to diplomatic sources, discussions are underway about revising the EU’s foreign policy decision-making process to limit the ability of individual member states to block consensus for political reasons.
By the way, in Poland the number of those who oppose Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO has increased – there are now more of them than supporters.
Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán once again opposed Ukraine’s European integration, citing the ongoing war as the main reason. The Hungarian government also released the results of a consultative poll, in which 95% of participants reportedly opposed Ukraine’s accession to the EU. In Kyiv, these actions were viewed as political manipulation designed to portray Ukraine as an adversary and to divert Hungarian public attention from domestic issues.
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