Hungarian Conservative

A turnabout in the Hungarian stance seems unlikely at the moment. The Hungarian government has consistently vetoed further military assistance to Ukraine as well, and will most probably not change course regarding Ukrainian accession to the EU either under the Hungarian rotating presidency.

In a joint press statement with the Moldovan Prime Minister, Orbán described the eight years since Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the European Union as ‘offensively long’ and expressed hope that some of the lost time may be regained by speeding up accession negotiations.

Ursula von der Leyen, presenting the report on the expected reforms for the EU accession of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, as well as the accession prospects for the Western Balkans and Turkey, announced that the European Commission recommends initiating accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, as soon as they meet final conditions.

PM Orbán must have ‘run into’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the meeting, as some Hungarian media put it. However, conspicuously, Viktor Orbán did not post any photos of him and the Ukrainian leader to social media, as opposed to prominently featured pictures with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in a Facebook post. In fact, no formal meeting has been held between the two leaders since Zelenskyy entered office. Although Orbán has been invited to Kyiv, the Hungarian government has made it quite clear that the Hungarian PM will not be travelling to Ukraine unless the rights of the Hungarian minority in the country are restored.

The minister emphasised during a joint press conference with his Moldovan counterpart, Nicu Popescu, that the geopolitical significance of the Eastern Partnership has become even more valuable in the present circumstances.

Worries grow about Moldova’s stability as the second wave of pro-Russian protests erupted in Chișinău and Wizz Air temporarily suspended its flights due to repeated violations of Moldova’s airspace by Russian missiles.

Trans-Dniester in Moldova is considered to be Russia’s next target for invasion by the intelligence communities of multiple countries. Meanwhile, there has been social unrest is the capital city of Chisinau, also suspected to be connected to the Kremlin.

Anti-government protests, prompted by the soaring energy prices in Moldova, ended in chants of ´we want to be part of Russia!´.

Shortly after the uncovered plot to destabilise Moldova, Russian missiles violated the country’s airspace.

Moldova, the small Eastern European country that has been divided ever since it declared its independence from the USSR in 1991, has now criminalised separatism.

In a recent speech Ursula von der Leyen named Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia as countries without whom the EU is not complete. She, on the other hand, only referred to the Western Balkans as a bloc, despite the fact that the accession of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia should be a priority considering the EU’s security interests.