Earlier in the day, the European Council decided to open EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, and grant the EU candidate status to Georgia.
According to Orban, Ukraine is not ready to start EU membership talks, and this decision is “completely meaningless, irrational and inappropriate.”
“Hungary did not change its position, despite the fact that 26 countries insisted on making this decision, Hungary decided that if 26 countries decide so, let them go their own way. Hungary does not want to share this bad decision, so today it walked away from this decision,” Orban said in a video address, posted on his social media.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in turn said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not use veto on the EU summit against starting accession talks with Ukraine due to position of other 26 EU member states.
"Viktor Orban did not use the veto. This is an important point. We thought there would be a long discussion … 26 countries made it very clear how important it was to give a signal, at a certain point it became clear that he would not oppose it. This is a historical moment. The EU will start negotiations, it will take years, but today an important signal was sent to both Ukraine and Russia," De Croo told reporters.