A message of unity from the EU was not entirely possible at the end of the European Council on Thursday 6 March, when it came to support for Ukraine. The conclusions were adopted on behalf of twenty-six Member States, with Hungary not supporting the philosophy of the text. Neither the exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels nor the visit to French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris were enough to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to join the majority.
For his country, the details of military and financial support for Ukraine are unacceptable. The twenty-six other countries decided not to skim over the language on which they all agreed and, therefore, not to negotiate another watered-down version of the text with Hungary.
Viktor Orbán’s position is “extremely unfortunate”, according to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. For him, in the current context, the EU must stay the course of strong support: “We, the others, are united in our support for Ukraine, and that is worth much more than one country blocking unity”.
The President of the European Council, António Costa, acknowledged that Budapest was isolated on this issue. For him, this agreement with twenty-six instead of twenty-seven “does not create division”.
With the Hungarian question settled, the language of the conclusions on support for Ukraine in the near future has even been strengthened. The leaders want to “use all options under the Ukraine Facility to increase financial support for Ukraine”.
Slovakia has obtained the addition of a sentence recognising the impact of the end of Russian gas transit through Ukraine on supplies to Slovakia. In the final text, the European Council “calls on the Commission, Slovakia and Ukraine to intensify efforts towards finding workable solutions to the gas transit issue, while taking into consideration the concerns raised by Slovakia”.
For the rest, the conclusions’ text has not changed from the version we detailed previously (see EUROPE 13593/1).
Discussions on the content of safety guarantees. While the wording of the conclusions was acceptable to the vast majority of participants from the outset of the meeting, there was a lengthy exchange of views on the security guarantees to be provided to Ukraine as part of the peace negotiations. From the outset, it was not a question of making concrete promises, but rather of starting to see who is prepared to supply what in the post-war period.
Among the ideas mentioned in the security guarantees is the sending of European troops to Ukraine for peacekeeping missions. The idea is far from convincing all the Member States at this stage, but that did not stop Emmanuel Macron from calling a meeting in Paris on Tuesday of the chiefs of staff of the countries interested in participating in this type of effort. “We all want a Ukrainian army of a size and nature that can stand up to Russia”, he insisted at the end of the European summit.
His Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, on the other hand, ruled out such an option. “Sending European troops, without specifying which ones - French, British or others - is the most complex solution and probably the least effective. I’ve said it over and over again, and I’ve also ruled out the possibility of Italian soldiers being sent in this context”, she told the press before the end of the summit.
Following his meeting with the European heads of state or government, Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his conditions for the negotiations in a post on the X social network. He also referred to what he could see as a signal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war: “No attacks on energy and other civilian infrastructure; a truce for missiles, bombs and long-range drones; no military operations in the Black Sea”.
In another sign that discussions are progressing, Mr Zelensky announced that he would be travelling to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The following day, US and Ukrainian delegations are due to meet in Ukraine.
To see the conclusions at 26 on Ukraine: https://aeur.eu/f/fs0 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with the editorial staff)