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  1. @Sebastien
    Good article. It demonstrates Hungary’s complete lack of control over their ‘vote’ in the voting process. I particularly liked the measure whereby he was threatened with being stripped of any vote if he did not vote with the pack. The EU is a truly evil and tyrannical vehicle holding the people of Europe captive. There will come a point in Europe when the people will no longer accept their status as it now exists, and the outcome of that moment will dictate if the democracies of Europe will have the strength to rip free from the economic empire in which they are currently trapped.

  2. @Peloni

    How a Game of Good Cop-Bad Cop Sealed the E.U. Ukraine Fund Deal
    Top European leaders coordinated to get the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, to agree to the 50-billion-euro plan aimed at keeping Ukraine’s economy afloat during the war with Russia.

    Matina Stevis-GridneffMonika PronczukJason Horowitz
    By Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Monika Pronczuk and Jason Horowitz
    Reporting from Brussels and Rome

    Feb. 1, 2024
    Some European leaders jested they’d send Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary their hotel bills for the extra nights they had to spend in Brussels to convince him to support funding for Ukraine.

    Others, less jokingly, relayed to him he was facing the risk of a legal suspension from E.U. proceedings. And a few offered a friendly, sympathetic ear over late-night drinks as he complained about what he sees as a European bureaucracy stacked against him out of ideological animus.

    By Thursday morning, just one hour into an emergency European Union summit meeting, this carefully coordinated, behind-the-scenes pressure had forced Mr. Orban to fold. After weeks of standing in the way as the only holdout among 27 leaders, he finally agreed to a landmark fund for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros, or $54 billion.

    The breakthrough was especially significant for both Ukraine and the European Union. It will help keep Ukraine’s economy afloat for the next four years, even as U.S. aid is stuck in Congress. And it demonstrated European resolve to stand united in support of Ukraine against Russia, and its determination to bring an often obstructionist Mr. Orban to heel.

    To get there, Europe’s most important leaders each assumed varied roles to push Mr. Orban into line.

    European Council President Charles Michel played the bad cop. On Monday he called Mr. Orban to let him know there was no way he would be granted his demand for an annual veto right over the Ukraine fund.

    And he put the E.U.’s “nuclear option” on the table, telling Mr. Orban that some member states were considering launching a procedure that would strip him of his vote entirely — in what would be an unprecedented use of the E.U.’s rule book.

    Then, on Wednesday evening, Mr. Orban met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, his ideological friend from the hard right, in the executive suite of the stately, five-star Hotel Amigo — a staple for visiting dignitaries, tucked away in the heart of Brussels.

    Sitting on green velvet armchairs against the leafy wallpaper, over a bottle of champagne, Ms. Meloni told him he had more to gain from the E.U. if he played along. She suggested that a review of the Ukraine fund in 2025 would go some way toward satisfying his need for close scrutiny of the spending. Now was not the moment to dig in.

    Next it was the turn of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who had hosted Mr. Orban for lunch in January in Paris. He met Mr. Orban at the Amigo later on Wednesday evening and suggested that E.U. leaders could include some language in their joint conclusions that would nod to Mr. Orban’s complaint that the E.U. executive branch is withholding funds from Hungary because of ideological bias.

    All the while, Mr. Orban knew that a few miles up the street in the European quarter of Brussels, other leaders were meeting to talk about him — without him. A meeting between Mr. Michel; the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte; and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, confirmed that there was nothing to gain from holding out on the Ukraine fund.

    They stood committed that no further concession — like the unfreezing of E.U. money for Budapest, which Mr. Orban had squeezed from his partners before — would be forthcoming.

    That word was relayed back to Mr. Orban.

    The extraordinary efforts to get Mr. Orban to capitulate reflected both the Hungarian leader’s unique power to play the role of spoiler, as well as the determination of his E.U. partners to secure unanimous agreement to help Ukraine.

    Ukraine desperately needs to keep basic services running. The European aid, to be dispensed in the form of loans and grants over the next four years, would both cover immediate needs and allow Ukraine to plan its long-term budget.

    Before Thursday, talks had been gridlocked and the mood toward Mr. Orban, the closest E.U. ally of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, had been souring since he blocked the first Ukraine funding attempt in December.

    Mr. Orban’s obstruction had been riling his European partners. Small as his country is, Mr. Orban has made himself a big antagonist of E.U. rules and norms.

    The European Union and Hungary have long clashed over policies on the rule of law, corruption and minority rights. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, has taken Hungary to task over judicial appointments it says interfere with the independence of the courts; laws that discriminate against L.G.B.T.Q. people; and the defanging of anticorruption authorities.

    It blocked Hungary from gaining access to some €20 billion until it can demonstrate that it has altered those policies to bring them in line with E.U. rules and values.

    Mr. Orban has also been an outsized obstacle to many of Europe’s ambitions, including some sanctions against Russia and even Sweden’s bid to join the NATO alliance.

    He has claimed that his resistance comes down to a fundamental disagreement with other European leaders: He does not believe Russia poses a security threat to Europe, nor does he think that the European Union should be throwing its weight behind Ukraine.

    Mr. Orban regularly uses his levers within the bloc — often his ability to veto decisions that require unanimity, such as the introduction of the Ukraine fund — to push Brussels for concessions — including unfreezing money it has withheld from Hungary.

    In the current showdown, Mr. Orban had demanded an annual chance to veto the disbursement of money to Ukraine, but that was rejected. Instead, leaders agreed to a regular review of the spending to assuage concerns about diversion or corruption.

    Under the agreement, the European Commission will draft a report on how the Ukraine fund is being used. European leaders will have a chance to debate its performance and raise any concerns about it.

    The European Parliament needs to approve the fund by simple majority, a bar that should be easily cleared, and the vote could take place as early as this month.

    If Mr. Orban’s demand for an annual veto for the Ukraine fund was a play to get access to more funding, it failed.

    He managed only to extract a reference in the summit conclusions urging the European Commission to be “proportionate” in the way it freezes funding for member states it punishes for violations, as is the case with Hungary.

    Asked whether Mr. Orban gained any concessions in return for withdrawing his veto demand, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, told reporters: “The answer to your question is a simple no.”

    Still, Mr. Orban insisted he had won the argument as he got ready to head home.

    “Mission accomplished,” he said on social media. “Hungary’s funds will not end up in Ukraine and we have a control mechanism at the end of the first and the second year. Our position on the war in Ukraine remains unchanged: we need a ceasefire and peace talks.”

    The E.U. was equally triumphant.

    “The European Council reconfirmed Europe’s unwavering commitment to stand with Ukraine,” Ms. von der Leyen told reporters. “We know that Ukraine is fighting for us, so we will support them with the necessary funding and provide them with a much needed predictability they deserve.”

    The news was warmly welcomed in Ukraine.

    “It is very important that the decision was made by all 27 leaders, which once again proves strong EU unity,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wrote on social media. “Continued EU financial support for Ukraine will strengthen long-term economic and financial stability, which is no less important than military assistance and sanctions pressure on Russia.”

    Andrew Kramer contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.

    Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the European Union. More about Matina Stevis-Gridneff

    Monika Pronczuk is a reporter based in Brussels. She joined The Times in 2020. More about Monika Pronczuk

    Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief for The Times, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. More about Jason Horowitz

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/world/europe/eu-hungary-ukraine-fund.html

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  3. @Sebastien

    So much for Meloni.

    Yes, it is unfortunate, but it was also predictable. Europe is neither a political nor military alliance. It is a economic alliance, one from which the members have no credible possibility of withdrawing. The economic blackmail used to manipulate the individual members is significant, and despite the interests of the members states and the will of the people of the member states, the votes are usually unanimous. This is why the protests all across Europe have no impact on how the members vote, because they are controlled from Brussels. Herein lies the threat of transnational alliances, even among democracies, which somehow seem to delight some to believe that a UN with all democratic nations would be less of a threat to individual sovereignty than the current UN. Transnational alliances have no connection to the individual electorates in the individual nations, and their every demand and judgement is therefore an act of tyranny in defiance of democratic peoples. This is the tragedy of Italy, which was formerly one of the economic powerhouses of Europe before being forced into the Europe-sized hole allotted to it. Quite tragic for the people of Europe, but a good lesson for the rest of the world’s nations to refrain from being similarly becoming trapped in such tyrannical transnational organizations.

    Having stated this, the example of Hungary remains to be an exception to prove the rule. Hungary has long refused to support aid to Ukraine, and to support Israel against the behemoth of the European state. Well, last week Hungary buckled on the former and held fast on the latter of these issues. It is important and impressive that Orban remained steadfast on the Israel resolution, but the fact that he capitulated on the Ukraine bill demonstrates the ultimate control which Brussels holds over his nation.

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  4. @Peloni

    “Italian PM: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a precursor to Hamas attack on October 7… If international legality is not re-established in Ukraine, the outbreaks of conflict will continue to multiply,” she said.

    Meloni also expressed support for a two-state solution in the interview, saying it is “in everyone’s interest, both Israel and Palestine…” – Arutz Sheva Feb. 25, 2024

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385757.

    So much for Meloni.

  5. @Enzo
    Forgive the intrusion, but the two little hands work for me. Perhaps you need to clear your internet cashe and cookies, or simply sign out and back in at Israpundit. Just a thought.

  7. Ted, it is for me frustrating to see that on the comments page there are two little hands meant to indicate approval or disapproval of the comment written above, but when one clicks on one of them nothing happens . It would be more serious to do away with the two little hands because the result would be the same. Do you want to know or not what your readers think of the comments posted? Let’s be serious.

  10. I encourage people to read the entire speech. Melonie’s election is very important. I am looking forward to see how her Right wing govt fares as they face off against the significant hold which the corrupt Leftists have over Europe, but I predict the change which brought Melonie’s party to power will be seen in many nations over the coming months. If this prediction holds true, it will be a very good thing, for Europe and the world. We should, however, take to heart the implicit threat made by Van Der Leyen that “we have tools” for those govts which become too great a problem. The Left may loose power, but their going will not be an easy feat, as has been seen to be the case in the US.