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LAST UPDATE | 14 Dec 2023
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR and fellow EU leaders arrived in Brussels today for a summit where many member state heads are expected to face off against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as he threatens to veto a massive aid package and a start to membership talks for Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters as he arrived at the summit this morning, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said this week’s Council meeting was “probably one of the most important” ones he has attended because of the decisions that need to be made in relation to Ukraine.
The crunch summit in Brussels – which diplomats fear could drag on longer than the two days planned – comes as fears mount over Western backing for Ukraine nearly two years into Russia’s war.
Varadkar said the Council must say yes to at least one, but ideally both, of the decisions facing it – the €50 billion aid package and the opening of EU membership talks for Ukraine.
Kyiv is desperately seeking to improve the narrative after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy failed in Washington to win over Republican lawmakers blocking support from the United States.
But Orban – Russia’s closest ally in the European Union – stands in the way of Ukraine’s hopes for the large sum of financial aid and progress towards its goal of one day joining the EU.
Critics have accused the Hungarian leader of holding Kyiv’s survival hostage in a bid to force Brussels to release billions of euros of EU funds frozen over a rule of law dispute.
In what some saw as a last-minute concession the European Commission, the EU’s executive, agreed yesterday to unblock €10 billion of that cash.
But €21 billion still remain out of Orban’s grasp and it was far from clear that the gesture would avert a damaging dispute at the summit.
Varadkar today refuted claims that the EU had released these funds as an “incentive” for Orban.
“The rules are the rules. Hungary is entitled to certain monies and they’re linked to certain rules and if they fulfill the criteria the money flows.
“The timing is not good, because of course, the perception is that this is some sort of incentive to Hungary to support certain positions…but that’s actually not the case,” the Taoiseach said.
Orban has warned opening accession talks with Ukraine would be a “terrible mistake” and has said that he will not budge.
Zelenskyy countered that Orban had “no reason” to block Kyiv from moving towards EU membership and said his country could not beat Russia without more Western support.
The stand-off sets the stage for hours of arm twisting in Brussels as fellow leaders will try to hash out a deal to get Orban to back down.
“If Ukraine doesn’t have support from the EU and the US, well then Putin will win and [we will see] all of the consequences that flow for the world after that. So that’s why this meeting is so important,” Varadkar said.
The Taoiseach insisted Hungary would not be successful in its bid to veto either of today’s decisions.
“That’s not going to happen. This is going to be a difficult meeting, it’s going to take awhile,” he said.
Varadkar added that he knows from speaking to President Zelenskyy that EU membership talks for Ukraine “matters on the front line”.
“Soldiers who have been fighting on the front line for Europe, for Ukraine, this will really counts in terms of their morale,” he said.
Elsewhere however, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said yesterday: “I’m not that optimistic, having talked to Viktor Orban about these issues.”
The Baltic leader said the focus was on getting the “plan A” across the line rather than the EU’s other 26 countries having to find the money for Kyiv.
“If that is absolutely a no-go, if we have sat here for already very many days and Christmas is coming, maybe even New Year already, then we’ll think about a plan B,” she said.
European Council chief Charles Michel, whose job it is to corral the leaders towards an agreement, insisted work was going on “day and night” to try to thrash out a deal.
“The most important thing for us as Europe is to support effectively Ukraine,” said newly elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“We are talking not just about Ukraine and the war and the Russian aggression, we are talking about our future,” said Tusk, himself a former EU Council chief and summit host.
Tusk’s Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte agreed that it was “vital that we agree on the 50 billion for Ukraine”.
The summit also has to consider the membership ambitions of Moldova and Georgia, two other ex-Soviet states.
Even if Ukraine and Moldova are granted talks, the protracted process of joining the EU will involve years – if not decades – of major reforms.
- Reporting from © AFP 2023
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Ukraine joining the EU would push our payments to the EU to an astronomical level. We’ve done enough for them. A war between two countries that is nothing to do with us. Russia has no interest in invading Poland or any other EU country, in spite of these people telling us it’s the case.
@James Groden: How clever of you to be able to read the minds of Russian leaders, even if you have toned down the Russian propaganda you used to post regularly.
War in Europe has everything to do with us.
@James Groden: You mean like russia had no interest in invading Ukraine?
@James Groden: how do you know?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Russia could very easily wipe the entire Ukraine off the map if they chose to, but they have chosen not too. Seems like all the hysteria from the USA and the EU were same old lies.
@David: Really?
The second army of the world had been trying to gain control of The Donbass region of Ukraine since 2014.
And couldn’t.
russia has lost over 1/5th of its planes, 1/3rd of its helicopter fleet, 40% of its tanks, 42% of its artillery.
So far.
Oh, and a significant amount of its Black Sea fleet. Destroyed. By a nation with no navy to speak of.
Ukraine has been dismantling the russian war machine.
For us.
Ukraine is doing the world a favour, and paying a price in blood for us.
Hopefully russia will learn to stay within its own borders in future.
@James Groden: Ukraine will be accepted into the union because it is the only way to legalize what the EU have forced on everyone!
10 grand to a penny they get accepted!
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: i am not listening to any more of your western propaganda.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Ukraine is certainly not doing the world a favour, they are doing the dirty work for the eu and the usa
@David: Ah, you do prefer russian propaganda, rather than the plain simple truth.
The plain simple truth which you are unable to dispute.
Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Ukraine is fighting for a future free from russian oppression and atrocity.
They are doing the world a favour by stopping russia in its tracks.
For if russia wins against Ukraine, then another will be its next victim.
That is why we must ensure that russia is not allowed to win.
And that is why Ukraine is fighting for all of us.
@Brendan O’Brien: Well according to Joe Biden unless the US sends another $200M he’s coming for Poland.. the rest of Eastern Europe.. and god only knows where he’ll stop!!!! Anyone who still believes this sort of stuff needs their head examined.
@David: more Kissinger nonsense
@James Groden: Ukraine can go to hell
@brian madden: Because he gets told it straight from Moscow. Isn’t that right, Comrade Groden?
Time for Hungary to be removed from the EU, they oppose much of what it stands for.
@Brian Keelty: One of Orbans problems with Ukraine is the repression of the Hungarian language in the sizable Hungarian speaking minority of Ukraine. They have a long way to go to get their house in order to join the EU. Corruption there still isnt sorted out.
@Brian Keelty: he doesn’t put up with their nonsense, unlike a lot of the other spineless so called leaders
@Dave Callaghan: That may be so, but admitting Ukraine will have long-term benefits for the EU, and Europe in general, as well as Ukraine. It’s a dangerous world at present.
@Brian Keelty: Does that include mass murder in Gaza?
@Dave Callaghan: And corruption is rife in Hungary.
@Brian Keelty: they are the only ones speaking up against the corruption in Ukraine, we can see from here how much they love scams, rinsing our welfare systems, im was all for them joining, but now i wouldnt let them in the door to observe nevermind have a seat at the table
@Dave Callaghan: Except that the Hungarian language is not being repressed in Ukraine.
That is just one of those nonsense claims that Orban is using to stir trouble.
As Brian said, we need to find a way to get rid of Hungary.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: orban is simply exploiting the situation for his own ends. But Hungarians are either kept in the dark or have short memories. 1956. As for corruption in Hungary, a one second google will put you right.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: ”Ukraine’s Hungarians in spotlight as Orbán threatens to block EU accession” The Guardian Dec 8. Why are you telling porkies?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: ”European bodies have repeatedly criticised Ukraine for its policies on minority languages, particularly after the passage of a 2017 law that restricted the use of languages other than Ukrainian, a move aimed at lessening the influence of the Russian language that also affected Hungarian and Romanian communities”
@Dave Callaghan: Now, now.
You really shouldn’t be spreading russian propaganda.
A very large proportion of Ukrainians have russian as their only language.
Just as a very large proportion of Irish people have English as their only language.
With the russian attacks on Ukraine, Ukraine understandably wants to emphasise its own culture, just as we did here.
And so the Ukrainian language is being taught in Ukrainian schools.
Just as Irish is being taught in our schools.
Whether we like it or not.
That is not an attack on russian.
That is not an attack on Hungarian.
Although its suits the russians (and their puppets like Orban) to portray it as such.
I wonder if those EU bodies might help us remove the requirement for Irish in the Irish school system.
I’d be all in favour of that.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Thanks. That last paragraph tells me everything I need to know about you.
@Dave Callaghan: So you are in favour of us being forced to learn Gaelic in our schools, while simultaneously being against Ukrainians having to learn Ukrainian in theirs?
Now what does that tell us all about you?
@Dave Callaghan: oh so he only want to protect the ethnic Hungarian residents of Ukraine. Now where have we heard something similar before . Oh yes! Wasn’t that the same pretext Russia used before invading Ukraine? Perhaps we should look at that too and see if we’re repressing any ethnic groups? Asking them to speak English in an English speaking country and little racist things like that. It’s positively treacherous isn’t it!
Iam just wondering how we can commont on Europe Hungary and Ukraine but can not commont on the genocide in Gaza
@Tony Martin: The Journal does like to suppress speech on those topics of greatest importance.
While being gracious enough to allow us to comment on The Late Late.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Yet here you both are, commenting on the very platform about the very thing you’re saying you’re being suppressed from commenting about…eejits.
@Iano C: This is one of the very few articles that we have been allowed to comment on.
Have you really not being paying attention?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: no harm in suppressing bs lol
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Yet they left all comments open to slag off Russia.
@David: On the contrary, this is the first vaguely Ukraine related article with comments open.
And why should russia not be criticised for its atrocities, and other wrong-doing?
Why do you think russia should be immune from criticism, but demand the right to criticise others?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: comments were left wide open for the guts of 18 months!
all Russia bashing was totally acceptable on this site… straight-up fact!!!
@David: If truth is russia bashing, then you are correct.
The reality is that some of us challenged the virulent russian propaganda lies with simple truth.
Which the propagandists did not like, and could not handle.
At all.
@Tony Martin: maybe find a story about Gaza and comment there. This is not the place for that sort of hand wringing!
Varadkar v Orban. Now that fight I would love to see.
@Gerry Lamont: don’t even know what to say to this comment,sorry for your weirdness
Varadkar is the least important person in that room, Ireland has zero to offer but tax payers money, always trying to be the best boy in class, the E.U loves the subdued nature of the Irish so ignorant to world events and a willingness to sell their souls for the gold star and the chance to sit at the front of the class
leaky v orban…..thats gonna be an insteresting match up
It is time to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end. The American money was always going to dry up.
The sooner the peace negotiations start, the more Ukrainian lives will be saved.
@Roisin Dubh: We in the EU will just have to increase our assistance to Ukraine.
We cannot allow a tyrant to oppress a free people.
@Roisin Dubh: Somehow Nord Stream got forgotten. If, indeed, it was Ukraine that bombed it, then they damaged the German (and by extension the EU) economy, that is now supposed to pour huge amounts into Ukraine. If, and that would be my guess, it was the US and they passed the blame to the Ukrainians, rhen there is a serious thinking to be done as to why are they trying to harm the EU?
@Zmeevo Libe: It was most likely the russians that destroyed Nord Stream.
Orban should be booted out. If he is so dedicated to autocrat Putin and his mafia state, let him fangirl without the horrific constraints of EU membership.
Slava Ukraini.
@honey badger: take few Slavas into your household and hold on tight… In Ukraine you can buy anything…passport and police are cheap there…. Its corruption and mafia… Not gangs but real mafia connected from above…but what do we know …. You pathetic slava….
@BigEd: Now do the imperialist, fascist, murdering Russian state.
The Eu will do whatever the large Arms companies decide politicians are business people working for bigger business people no wonder Fianna fails Michael Martin wants us in NATO (arms industry) sending our kids off to fight wars that have nothing to do with neutral Ireland
It looks like the EU is as bad as the UN
where one Country can block the wishes of the majority making a mockery of those institutions.
Is this guy for real. Show boating again.Has he forgotten about his own Country. We are a basket case at the moment,
Worst ever in our History,and he is lecturing to Europe.
You couldn’t make it up .
Election can’t come quick enough.
@James Mullen: Can I ask who you’ll be voting for to fix the basket case? Genuinely interested.
@honey badger: I’m hopeful a New Honesty Party of decent people might come forward. If not I hope the Monster Looney Party might Run.
Start to believe that Russia real plan is to ruin Europe over Ukraine support… Many economists a decade ago stated that Europe would not be able to support Ukraine as part of Europe.
@Dominic Leleu: Ukraine has vast natural resources.
Resources that will be of great benefit to the EU.
And which would undercut or remove the need for russia.
Time for Hungary to b kicked out of the EU he is only a puppet for Peutin
@Tony Martin: ah yeah, if you disagree with anything the EU says you are a Putin puppet.
The same EU that openly sponsors mass murder in Gaza!
Leo is playing an absolute blinder as always. Best Taoiseach ever
@Murray peter: Best of a bad bunch anyway…
@Murray peter: 100%
@Boris Blank: looks like there’s another alias.
@David: Some of these trolls seem to suffer from multiple personality disorder.
Among other disorders.
Double standards from Leo he said the Eu have lost credibility because of Gaza !! but him and his FFG government still harbor and voted the Israeli ambassador in her Dublin mansion doing her propaganda tours of the Irish media justifying and backing the slaughter of 2500 innocent palestenians per week mostly women babies and children with 50000 maimed for life
@Kevin O Brien: He is one of the few EU leaders standing up and speaking up for the rights of Palestinians. Expelling the Israeli ambassador would achieve absolutely nothing.
@Brendan O’Brien: Expelling the Israeli ambassador would be among the most powerful actions – as distinct from mealy-mouthing – we could take.
@Kevin O Brien: He/she is a snake, and so is the other part timer.
@Brendan O’Brien: No he’s not, he is paying lip service.
Words mean nothing unless they are backed with actions, both part timers are yellow cowards!
Not everyone is as corrupt,Leo
Some stick to their belief. But you would not get that, nor your friends in the government.
Zio lobby control Europe politics. Orban will be put on his knees despite he is another Zio.
@Ham Hat: Oh for sure friend
/puts on tinfoil hat
Hungary needs to leave the EU
They can restart the Soviet Union with Russia
Leo continues to support Biden, he’s already supported his election campaign for he’s reelection in the US by paying for the Irish vote when he paid with our money Biden’s visit ro ireland.
He is now supporting him, on the world stage, against the political and civil opposition the futher funding of Ukraine is causing Biden on his home ground.
He turns the other cheek regarding the US in the Israeli/Palestine conflict as that suits his European ambitions!!
3 countries are against it, so be it! kids are being murdered daily and all these bunch of hypocrite do natin’ about it, ukrane this that.. antisemitism this that.. porototooo..
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