Wait for Donald Trump before extending Russia sanctions: Orban to EU

By Alberto Nardelli and Jorge Valero

 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told European Union leaders that he wants to wait until the inauguration of his ally Donald Trump before deciding whether to extend the bloc’s sanctions against Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The EU has imposed 15 rounds of sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, which need to be extended every six months. The next extension is due by the end of January, 11 days after Trump is due to be sworn in. 

 

Up to now, it’s been a routine decision, but extensions require the unanimous backing of the 27 member states, which could allow Orban to veto it. At the end of a day-long EU summit Thursday, Orban surprised his counterparts by saying he wasn’t ready to move forward with an extension, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

 

The EU is already worried that Trump, who has suggested he may cut or eliminate US support to Ukraine, will strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orban’s objection drove home a key worry of European leaders: that the Hungarian leader may partner with Trump to shatter the bloc’s unity over supporting Ukraine financially and militarily.

 

In the waning weeks of the Biden administration, the US and the EU have been working to ramp up pressure on Russia’s struggling economy, including tightening the sanctions regime.

 

The EU has frequently run into hurdles with Orban, who has blocked a number of steps aimed at further punishing Russia or helping Ukraine. He has been a close ally of Trump and traveled to Florida earlier this month to meet him in person. 

 

At this week’s summit in Brussels, the EU was already falling into an uneasy waiting game, with leaders on standby to see what he will actually do when he’s back in the White House.

 

“The main message today was full support for Ukraine as long as it takes,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday evening at a news conference.

But Trump’s return has caught the EU at its most vulnerable moment in years, leaving leaders to piece together a way forward. And the summit also betrayed the tentative nature of the EU’s response.

 

A meeting that sought to drive home unity featured some notable absences. Emmanuel Macron of France skipped the summit to survey flood damage in the Indian Ocean. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni left early with the flu. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was there, but hobbled politically at home. 

 

Starring Role 

And Orban enjoyed a starring role in the summit’s final news conference, where he noted the US will soon have a new president. 

 

“I suggest to Europeans to have strategic patience,” Orban told reporters. “We should not do anything that would go against this future transatlantic relationship.”

 

European governments would be hard-pressed to fill any vacuum in Ukrainian aid left by the US. 

 

The EU must “spend more money on defense, that’s the short answer,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters. 

 

Scholz, who lost a confidence vote earlier this month, said he was confident that the foreign policy cooperation with the US will continue under Trump’s administration. He spoke with Trump by phone on Thursday.

 

“I am quite confident that the USA like Europe will continue their support for Ukraine,” Scholz told reporters of his discussion with Trump. “But of course with a clear perspective that there will be a fair peace for Ukraine, that it can defend its sovereignty and that the killing will end.”