Hungarian Conservative

The protracting NATO accession process of Sweden seems to be reaching its conclusion, following the announcement of support for ratification by Fidesz parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis.

All MPs for the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition, as well as some for the left-wing opposition, were absent from the extraordinary parliamentary session called for Monday, thus the vote on Sweden’s NATO membership did not meet the threshold to be legally binding. US Ambassador David Pressman was also present, but then left the House disappointed.

‘We are nobody’s orderly,’ Hungarian House Speaker László Kövér stated in an interview with Index, addressing the question of the Hungarian ratification of Sweden’s NATO accession.

At first glance, the declaration of wanting to see Ukraine in NATO does not seem much more than what the country was already told in 2008. But the truth is that Ukraine is closer than ever to joining the Alliance, which was indicated not only by the unanimous adoption of the closing communiqué, picturing Ukraine’s future within NATO, but also by the fact that Ukraine can skip the preliminary Membership Action Plan (MAP) that every other post-Soviet country had to undergo and negotiate defence issues as an equal partner in the established NATO Ukraine Council.