Olaf Scholz's successful coffee break strategy with Viktor Orbán.
The German chancellor, who has hardly made a name for himself on the European stage up until now, found an unconventional way to circumvent a Hungarian veto on the opening of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine.
EU leaders on Thursday agreed to open accession talks with Kyiv, taking a definitive step toward Ukraine’s integration into the European project by bypassing Moscow’s closest ally in the bloc: the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.
But leaders failed to agree on a €50 billion aid package for Kyiv, pushing talks to January after Hungary blocked the proposal.
Georgian non-governmental organisations staged a pro-European Union march in the capital Tbilisi on Saturday, a week ahead of the bloc’s decision on granting the country membership candidacy status.
EU leaders are set to discuss putting Tbilisi on a formal membership path and to launch accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova during a European Council meeting on 14-15 December.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that Ukraine had fulfilled “almost” all the requirements set out by the EU to start accession talks, ahead of a pivotal European Council summit in December.
“To see the deep and structural reforms that Ukraine is doing while fighting an existential war is to me deeply impressing,” von der Leyen told a POLITICO event.
Some western Balkan leaders are growing increasingly frustrated that Ukraine is leapfrogging their countries in the EU accession process, adding further delays to their decades-long efforts to join the bloc.
Brussels has handled Kyiv’s accession bid with record speed since Russia’s full-scale invasion last year.