12 mo. ago • 90%

Ukraine 'light years away' from joining EU, says Hungarian PM Viktor Orban

www.euronews.com Ukraine 'light years away' from joining EU, says Viktor Orban

Viktor Orban said he and his government would “resist” EU talks scheduled for mid-December on whether to formally extend an invitation to Kyiv to join the bloc.

28 comments

Hungary out, ukraine in please

83
- mate just throw the baby out, the rest of it is fine. I don't feel like as a Hungarian that I should be punished for what that piece of shit prime minister is doing.
  
  don't say to vote him out, that doesn't work in a dictatorship disguised as a democracy.
  
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As we all know, Orban is very connected with the standards and values of the EU, and definitely hasn't screwed his country out of billions in EU assistance because of his authoritarian regime.

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- Wouldn't say Ukraine is highly connected with the standards and values of the EU either, though.
  
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  They've made great strides in the past few years. EU integration was a key demand during the Euromaidan protests, after all, and Zelenskyy ran on a platform of anti-corruption and EU integration.
  
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Hungary should be very close to leaving it instead.

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- Orbán wants to leave for social reasons, but wants to stay for economical reasons. Orbán wants the EU money, but none of the responsibilities expected for it.
  
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  His boss in the Kremlin also wants him to stay and wreck the EU from within. Once it disintegrates and Russia gets back its historical possessions up to the Berlin Wall, then and only then will Orban be invited to sit at the Czar’s right hand as a hero of the mighty Eurasian empire.
  
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Hungary metres from leaving

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I disagree with Orban saying Ukraine will take light years to join the EU.
They could join any metre now.

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I do not like Orban at all and hate to agree with him, but I think he is right. I think there are two big reasons why Ukraine is unlikely to join the EU proper in the near to medium term:

The EU needs reform when it comes to deciding things when there is no consensus and this is now a very accepted position.The EU will only become more sluggish if we open the gates to another country with veto power.

Farmers. Ukraine is a big (and has potential to be even bigger) aggreculture powerhouse. Many laws (aggreculture subsidies etc) in the EU are not sustainable if Ukrain becomes part of the EU.

These problems are solvable, but take a lot of time I think. Also I don't think it is in the EUs best interest to allow a war torn/rebuilding market into the single market, but here I could be wrong. Maybe there are reasons (like a way to exploit Ukraine after the war) that would invalidate my theory...

I would like to see the EU expand, but I think it will take a long time.
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- As cynical as it may sound, the war has had an immeasurable cost to Ukraine, they are nowhere near in a capacity to join the EU economically for decades.
  
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That is a measure of distance, not time.

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- that's why he said: light years away
  
  as in: there is still a great amount of distance Orban thinks Ukraine needs to cover before they converge with the EU admissions acceptability criteria
  
  God, I can't believe I just had to defend Orban
  
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  "Years away" is also a phrase, honestly it could easily be either and it takes more of a stretch to read it like you did than as a mistake.
  
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  Most people consider light years a measure of time, not distance.
  
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  That is lost on me...
  
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This is the best summary I could come up with:

Viktor Orban said he and his government would “resist” EU talks scheduled for mid-December on whether to formally extend an invitation to Kyiv to join the bloc.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said Ukraine is "light years away" from joining the EU.

The comments came as he was reelected as the president of the right-wing nationalist Fidesz party for the 11th consecutive time in Budapest on Saturday.

Unanimity among all member states is required to admit a new country into the EU, giving Orban a powerful veto.

The EU's executive earlier this month recommended the beginning of accession talks with Ukraine, saying that its government “has shown a remarkable level of institutional strength, determination and ability to function.”

Billions in funding have been withheld from Budapest over concerns that the government has failed to uphold rule-of-law and human rights standards.

The original article contains 283 words, the summary contains 141 words. Saved 50%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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