EU leaders managed to parry Hungary’s attempt to derail their Ukraine summit last week, but diplomats are now bracing for a bare-knuckled brawl over Russia sanctions this week.

By Alexandra Brzozowski

BRUSSELS – EU leaders managed to parry Hungary’s attempt to derail their Ukraine summit last week, but diplomats are now bracing for a bare-knuckled brawl over Russia sanctions this week.

At a largely harmonious EU summit on Thursday, EU leaders simply worked around Hungary, which refused to sign on to the statement that all other EU leaders “firmly supported”. Budapest, though, didn’t seem too bothered.

At least this time, other EU leaders managed to avoid Hungary holding EU foreign policy hostage, with some suggesting that the Budapest bypass could be replicated in the future.

Some EU diplomats, however, have privately voiced their surprise that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has made an art of coaxing concessions out of Brussels, did not ask not anything in exchange this time. Nor did he bring up any contentious issues – such as sanctions on Russia – at the gathering, according to accounts from within the room.

But Orbán’s zen-like approach might have more to do with the fact that no actual decisions were taken at the gathering. The next summit, slated for 20 March, could prove more laborious.

Diplomats said they believe Budapest has partly held its fire to save ammunition for the big battle next week – a crucial decision to extend a package of EU sanctions, which needs to be rolled over every six months and is up by 15 March.

There’s no way to dance around Budapest this time, since sanctions require unanimous agreement from all 27 EU countries. That gives Orbán much more leverage to extract whatever he might want or threaten to blow up the deal for real.

The EU restrictive measures in question target persons, companies and other entities that the EU says are directly involved in undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine by imposing travel bans and asset freezes.

There are currently over 2,400 individuals and entities on the EU’s blacklist.

Budapest, over the past three years, has weaponised the periodic sanctions renewal as a bargaining chip and has repeatedly sought to remove some of the sanctioned individuals.

In recent weeks, Hungary has said it’s looking to remove eight individuals from the EU’s Russia sanctions list and score more concessions in gas transit talks with Ukraine.

Hungary’s permanent representation to the EU did not confirm which individuals those would be.

With US President Donald Trump sending plenty of signals that Washington might drop sanctions on Russia as part his quest for a peace deal, Budapest is likely to be emboldened to fight the EU’s sanctions on Russia more viciously.

After a visit to Washington last week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said he expected a response to a letter Hungary sent to the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, over his country’s gas spat with Ukraine before considering an extension of sanctions.

For months, Hungary and Slovakia have been feuding with Ukraine after the country ended an agreement to facilitate flows of gas from Russia to the EU. Talks chaired by the chaired by the European Commission have so far been unsuccessful.

In January, Hungary dropped its veto and went along with the six-month extension of the EU’s main sanctions regime against Russia – but only after receiving a joint, non-binding statement that Hungary’s gas concerns would be taken seriously in Brussels.

EU ambassadors have three chances this week to secure an extension of the sanctions package – either on Monday, on Wednesday and, as a last resort, on Friday.

A stalemate that lets the sanctions list expire would put the EU in uncharted territory.

Source: Euractiv.com